


Patch-Up

by SoulSearcher13



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Healer!OC, I have no idea what I'm doing, Mild Cursing/Foul Language, My First Work in This Fandom, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, but isn't everything AU, semi-immortal!OC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-09 14:45:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7806001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulSearcher13/pseuds/SoulSearcher13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He avoids fighting like the plague, and tries to keep as many people alive as he can. He just wants to live peacefully. Is that too much to ask?</p><p>Apparently, yes.</p><p>Or.</p><p>In which a tired immortal soul gets dragged into the mess that is an intergalactic war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> SO. This is the first work I have for Voltron up. NO IDEA if its good. At some point I will run out of plot ideas and I might even stop entirely for a while. I dunno. 
> 
> I tried to make my OC not a Mary-Sue. I hate those more than anything else so if you think they're too OP, let me know. In fact, if you have plot ideas, requests for what to do, or just want to give your opinion, make a comment. I like to take in my readers opinions. (Though I reserve complete veto on anything. This is my story after all.) Anything and everything constructive to my writing and this story is accepted. Negative comments are not welcome.

It started with Grey.

Grey wasn’t a thing, or description. There is no true way to possibly liken it in mortal language, but it was light and dark and white and black and full and empty and infinite amount of other things that could only be called Grey. Even that, however, paled to depict the truth of the beginning.

He didn’t know how long he was Grey. For the longest time the Grey was he and he the Grey. And yet. Somehow he stopped being Grey and instead became himself.

(At this discovery he was struck by an incredible sense of fear and horror - though he wouldn’t have those names to put to those feelings until much later. It didn’t help that _feeling_ anything just scared him more.)

The process was long and slow, dragged out further when he clung to the Grey still with him. It was fruitless though and something had to give.

He was stubborn and scared. Digging into the Grey with his entire being, grasping every part he could reach _tore_ the Grey apart as much as nothing and everything could be torn apart. He clutched to the part with him, insignificant to the Grey, but as large as his being. He had such a tight grip on the fragment that he could he been melded with it.  

 

And then.

 

He was.

 

MORE.

 

When he ‘awoke’, the desperate desire to return to the Grey settled. It would always be there, he instinctively knew, but he could easily push it aside. He was finally comfortable with being him.

So of course this was when he _fell_.

 

* * *

 

He was always the strange one.

Where his blood-born prefered to sleep and hunt and play, he explored. Everything fascinated him. There were tall things. There were tiny things. There were large things. There were small things. He was a small thing at first, but it seemed that everything here became fuller. Not like the Grey.

His blood-born became fuller with him at first, but soon, too too soon, they all became as full as whole-blood and left.

He cried for them to come back. He abandoned his discoveries to get them to stay together, but when one of his blood-born attacked him, he stopped. Even whole-blood left when it was clear that he wouldn’t leave.

Alone and sad, he traversed the land he knew as home and sought.

For what, he didn’t know.

He only ate if food was close. He only slept when he dragged his weary form to safety. He ran instead of fighting the other whole-blood, though he didn’t always make it away unscathed. He always got better rapidly from injuries, unlike his blood-born, so it wasn’t much of a problem. The blood, however, attracted whole-bloods of all kinds before he learned to wash the blood away. He tried to be with some other whole-bloods and each time only resulted in the fights he ran from.

One day, after running from a particularly persistent whole-blood for being near a small (not-)blood-born, he slept.

 

And didn’t wake up.

 

* * *

 

Until he did.

 

Confused and disoriented, he tried to make out the world around him and cried when he couldn’t. There was an everlasting, soul searing pain that wouldn't go away. It stayed like that until he fell asleep once more.

 

* * *

 

He grew. As the son of a lord, he was taught many things and he, with his never ending awe of the world around him, learned. His tutors delighted in having him as a student, saying that he was the easiest child they were ever assigned to teach. The servants adored the youngest that wanted to help them with their duties. His parents were as proud as can be. His older brother and he loved him dearly.

He was delighted when he figured out that his new family wasn’t leaving him. That they could stay together. (That he didn’t have to be alone.)

Life was peaceful.

But then life was gone.

Bandits attacked their carriage when they were on their way to see the next town over. Their guards fought, but it was supposed to be a short trip so they didn't have as many as they would have had. Combined with the element of surprise by ambush, they all fell easily.

His older brother took him away and hid him just before being stabbed in the back himself.

Frozen, he could only watch as blood gushed from the wound. It was only when his brother let out a wet cough that he was jolted out of the horror that took over him. He rushed to his side, but there was nothing he could do.

He stayed there until one of the bandits noticed him and finished him off.

He welcomed the end.

 

* * *

 

After the third, fourth and fifth times his family died, he learned to keep some distance. He still felt affection, but he no longer tried to learn everything about them. No longer tried to stay close. Instead, he left as soon as he could.

It hurt being attached.

 

* * *

 

And so life for him continued.

Sometimes his lives were familiar, sometimes completely new. A few of his lives were animals, but most were human. Sometime he was she and sometimes she was he. He was rich and poor. He lived old and young. He focused on what he was and not what he has been or will be.

After his second life though, what he is, is a healer.

When he was human he pursued every bit of medical knowledge he could find. If there was something to learn, he sought it.

 

(He never wants to see someone die before him again.)

 

Many more still died before he could do anything, but in his eleventh life, he was able to put the knowledge he sought to good use and saved his first patient.

 

(The happiness and relief that filled him was something he could never forget.)

 

In his twenty-third life however, it wasn’t enough.

He avoided violence like the plague. He never wanted to hurt anybody and took up healing because he hated people being hurt.

He was on a battlefield. Their two clans were in all out war. He rushed over to the first injured in his clan he could see, but before he could reach them a sword was lodged in his chest.

As he fell, he landed in a position that gave him a clear view of everyone around him dying, unable to help as he lay dying himself.

The next life, he took up martial arts.

 

(It was convoluted. He learned to fight so he could heal and healed so he didn't have to fight. Then the cycle began again.)

 

In life number fifty-six, he learned to keep his truths to himself.

She was a child, barely ten years old, and her little sister was dying.

Her sister was born with a weak constitution and constantly fell ill. Her condition got worse and worse until no one thought she could survive her first winter.

She was so frustrated, unable to do anything to ease her suffering. She held her in her arms, fruitlessly wishing for her to get better.

She felt a tug at the half-forgotten not-Grey that _was_ her and was startled when it moved to ease the pain of the little one in her arms.

She was ecstatic. The not-Grey part of her was able to let her heal her sister, to let her keep people alive.

The glow around her hands extended and embraced her sister, bringing her to full health. Her sister would never be sick again.

She was mostly done with the process that she innately knew how to do and the glow was fading away when she heard a crash of pottery against the floor.

She turned to beam at her mother, but was stopped at the terror covering her face.

Not long after was the first time she was burned at the stake for being a witch.

She didn't mind the accusations of being the cause of her sister's poor health. Her sister would live after all.  She was just hurt at how no one would listen to what she had to say, going so far as to muzzle her to keep from being tainted by her ‘evil’.

Although she tried to tell only her most trusted in her sixty-third, sixty-fifth and seventy-second lives, nothing changed.

She never let anyone see her use the not-Grey again.

 

(They never believe her truths.)

 

If someone needed it to recover she would insist on complete privacy to do her work, learning over time how she should act to keep the ruse.

Death never truly disappeared from her lives, but as time passed, life got better.

Technology developed and allowed life to become easier and easier. With this came the discovery of new doctors and medical practices that saved more and more lives.

For once there was a choice.

He didn't have to practice medicine.

In his one hundred and first life, he chose to become a writer.

He wrote about his forty-second life as a Native American in a series of books that rapidly became popular.

 

(It was easily the most relaxing life he had.)

 

From then on, every once in awhile he would write and do something different.

He never could escaped the calling of being a healer though. He always returned to it in the next life.

It settled into routine for him. He was so used to shifting from one life to the next. He was content, if with not much interesting things left to do.

He thought this is how it would be until the end.

 

(As he looked back he laughed at the irony.)

 

* * *

 

He ran a hand through his hair as he looked through the student files.

In this life he was tired of playing pretend. Losing his best friend due to teenage jealousy made him want to avoid the shitstorm that was highschool for a life. He breezed through his education and became a fully certified medical officer at fourteen. Even then, it was only because he traveled the world with his family that it took so long. Although he had several proposals from all over the world vying for his presence at their hospitals, he wanted something new.

To the surprise of everyone other than his parents, he applied to be a nurse at the largest flight school in the world, Galaxy Garrison. With a record like his, he was accepted right away.

It was interesting being a nurse for people his age when he was so young. They were a lot more casual and relaxed with him than anyone else, though it was harder to earn respect.

He shuffled the next file on top and smiled at the file of Lance McClain in front of him. Lance was a good kid, if rather carefree.

Ever since Lance came to the Garrison two years ago, he caught Lance sneaking out several times. Lance was charming in a ‘I can't believe I know this idiot’ way and somehow he was always persuaded to let Lance off with a warning. Sometimes he saw Lance with Hunk and he always felt bad for the large teen so he tended to just remind them not to get caught by anyone else instead of a lecture. Of course, when Lance figured this out Hunk was always with him when he snuck out afterwards.

He was broken from his musings by the crackle of his intercom turning on.

“Dr. Crescent? Are you alone?”

“Yes, to both. What can I do for you Commander Iverson?”

“You're needed to come to the vehicle hold immediately and assist in the treatment of a possible injured man some miles away. This is confidential and for your ears only so I expect that you know how to handle yourself.”

Gabriel was rushing to his medical bags the moment he heard the word treatment. He never really felt comfortable treating anyone with anything other than his own equipment, though he could deal in a pinch.

“Of course sir, I'll be there in five minutes.”

Luckily it was lights out or he might have knocked into more than one student in his mad dash to his destination. Without knowing the state of his patient, every second wasted might be their last.

When the driver of the SUV was too slow, Gabriel snatched the keys away and forced him into the passenger’s side. Snapping into the driver's side himself and demanding he guide him to his patient, Gabriel gunned it.

Not two minutes later, some creative driving got them to their destination. While Gabriel pocketed the keys and rushed inside the makeshift medbay, the intended driver stumbled out to puke out his guts and proceeded to faint. Gabriel ignored this. It was a common enough reaction when he was behind the wheel of any vehicle.

His path was blocked by the guards who tried to keep him away from his patient. When they insisted he wear a hazmat suit before going in, he rushed to put one on, only caring that he had what they required of him and not how secure the hazmat suit was.

When he stepped inside and saw a man forcibly - he was obviously fighting the restraints - strapped to a table, he was outraged. One good thing about having a reputation like his was the ability to take over any situation if he acted controlling enough.

“What do you all think you're doing?” He snapped.

One brave soul tried to face the rage he was displaying. “Sir, he’s-”

“I didn't ask about him, I asked what you think you're doing.” Gabriel

“Calm down Dr. Crescent.” Iverson ordered. “The only thing we need you to do is assess his condition here to make sure he's not a danger to anyone else.”

“Please!” Shiro shouted. “You must listen to me! If we don't find Voltron humanity is done for!”

“He's been raving about aliens the entire time.” Iverson muttered. “Where is that anesthetic? I said to put him under.”

“Do you know what that might do!?” Gabriel demanded. “Since you called me here I expected for you to let me do my job! If you're-!”

The loud booming of explosions filled the air cutting him off.

“Fine.” Iverson snapped. “You can monitor his condition and do whatever it is you need to do with these three while me and my men investigate the source of that noise.”

With Iverson gone it left Gabriel in charge and he was perfectly happy with that. When he noticed one of the men approach Shiro he grabbed his arm.

“No anesthetic.” Gabriel ordered. “If Iverson wants him down he can wait until after I'm done. Now stay over there and wait for my instructions.”

Just as the man reached his position, the door slides open. Like morons, all three immediately attacked the intruder instead of, say, questioning them or setting off an alarm.

When all three were knocked out in ten seconds flat he could only sigh. None of them were trained fighters. What did they expect to happen. Honestly.

Shiro strained his head upwards, struggling to get a better view. Upon laying his eyes on the fighter he exclaimed, “Keith!”

“Shiro?” He disbelievingly questioned, something like hope raising in his eyes. Ignoring Gabriel, as he did nothing to stop him, he launched himself next to Shiro and cut off the restraints with a knife.

Before Gabriel could stop Keith from taking Shiro off the table, he was once more cut off by a very familiar face. Close behind him were two others.

 _At this point,_ Gabriel thought, _the hazmat suit is completely unnecessary._

“Nope. No you- nononono you don't. I'm saving Shiro.”

“Who are you?” Keith asked.

Lance, the cocky idiot, says, “Uh, who am I? The name’s Lance.”

Blank stare.

He tries again. “We were in the same class at the Garrison.”

“Really? Are you an engineer?”

“No, I'm a pilot! We were, like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck.”

“Oh wait. I remember you. You're a cargo pilot.”

“Well, not anymore. I'm fighter class now thanks to you washing out.” Lance retorts.

“Well congratulations.”

“As nice it is to see you Lance,” Gabriel interrupts, taking his helmet off in the process, “You better have a damn good explanation as to why you're taking my patient.”

“Gabriel!” Lance shouts.

“Yes, me. The guy _both_ of you need to start explaining to.” He says. “I don't know what you think you're doing, but he's _my_ patient and _my_ responsibility and he's not going anywhere until I make sure he's okay.”

Keith looked ready to put him down with the others before Pidge said, “Guys, hurry up in there!”

“We need to get out of here now.” Shiro states. “I appreciate that you're trying to do your job but it's important that we find Voltron immediately.

Lance sent a pleading look his way, reminiscent of the way he looked when he first tried to sneak out and got caught.

As always, Gabriel relents, cursing how soft he was with this kid, and moved to get his gear. Silently, he thanked the fact that he didn't unpack anything yet. “Fine, but I'm coming with. I can already identify that you have a concussion and possibly cracked ribs. Who knows what other injuries your body sustained.”

“Oh man.” Hunk announces, “They're coming back and they do not look happy. We got to go.”

Squeezing onto Keith's ride, they barely managed to rearrange themselves properly enough to fit in time to leave. Just as they could see the men returning, Keith fired up the engine and hightailed it. With the additional weight of five other people, they only barely managed to lose the pursuit sent after them. Even with the crazy stunts Keith pulled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things to know about my OC:  
> -He's only slightly jaded. At this point he just knows that people die, but he still believes the best in a lot of people, especially in the mostly peaceful period that is no Earth before the paladins leave. He knows that there are bad people out there, but he doesn't want to kill them if he doesn't absolutely have to. I mean, if you faced death all the time, would you want to kill people knowing that there is nothing for them?  
> -He doesn't know how to do anything with his power other than heal. Why would he experiment when he doesn't want to hurt and there is no need for him to? He has the power he wants so there is nothing else he does with it.  
> -He got used to being human. I mean sure, he lived lives as animals a few times, but those aren't nearly as common. Since he had no immortal experience as a higher being, he is basically a human that has a skewed perception of time, death and priorities.  
> -He dabbles. A lot. Random useful skills will pop up now and then. Living around 134 different lives as humans gives him plenty of time to pick up bits and pieces.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which introductions are made, battles are fought, and the beginnings of an original plot are seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This large chapter is a one off thing. I just wanted to get all of Episode 1 out of the way. The chapters will be kept to around 3,000-5,000 words after. 
> 
> This chapter adheres mostly to cannon. It's starting from the next chapter that the butterflies really start spreading. From there, it'll really become AU. By that, I mean full on cannon divergence. My writing will start to follow the style of the latter half of the chapter as well. 
> 
> A good portion of this dialogue is from the actual episode. Okay, maybe a bit more than that. (Or nearly entirely copy and paste) But hey! There are scenes I completely made up so that's something, right? Right?
> 
> Here's a shout out to all the other writers of the Voltron fandom. I have to give them credit, bits of what I used as a description of the ship I pulled from vague memories of reading their works. No idea what belongs to who, but I'm sure they know. If you're one of those authors and you don't want me using your ideas, then please contact me and I'll make changes. Though, keep in mind, there's a chance of it being "great minds think alike". I am aware of what ideas are mine and mine alone.

“How much longer until we get there?” Pidge screamed over the wind. “I did not sign up to _literally_ be a human coatrack and my arms are getting tired.”

“Sorry, just let me…” Shiro shifted, trying to support himself, but he only managed to cause a panic as he nearly fell off the fast moving hoverbike.

Gabriel's arm shot out and with some help from Hunk behind him, Shiro was safely back on board. A collective sigh of relief was released… before Keith realized that they were heading straight for a boulder and swerved.

“Dude!” Lance leveled a glare at the mullet in front of him. “Watch the road. Desert. Whatever. Just don't crash us!”

“Like you should even be here.” Keith shot back. “I never planned to take five extra people along for the ride. We'll be there soon. So don't move anymore.” He tacked on as an afterthought. 

Sure enough, five minutes later and they were at a small cottage in the desert. Gabriel immediately got off and held his arms out to support Shiro. Keith hurried to do the same.

Gabriel turned to look at the other teens. They were awake, but that wasn’t saying much. The late hour was finally wearing down on them. Pidge especially had the look of someone who went through too many late nights, though it seemed he also had the determination to stay awake regardless. In fact, they all should rest before they fall asleep on their feet.

“Keith,” Gabriel nudged the teen with a foot, “get everyone settled in for the night. I’ll take Shiro to your bed and see to his injuries.”

Unsurprisingly, protests flew up from everyone. The cacophony of noise right in his face ticked Gabriel’s temper over the boiling point. It was a long night and he was done with this bullshit. Bad enough that he might be court martialed for this, he refused to deal with their crap at ass o’clock in the morning.

“QUIET!” He bellowed. He took a breath to calm himself, then looked up.

“You three,” He began, ”look dead on your feet. You are going to sleep and we’ll discuss this in the morning.”

“But-” Pidge tried to interject.

“Zzt.” Gabriel used a free hand to swipe across his throat. “No. I don’t care what you want. You’ll all go to sleep and when everyone’s awake, _then_ we can talk. That goes for you two as well.” He turned his head to keep Shiro and Keith in his field of vision. “Keith, you’ve been driving the entire time. That sort of thing wears on people, no matter who they are. And Shiro, you are in no condition to look for a desert scorpion, much less an alien weapon.” He ends with a glower.

“At least let me help take Shiro to my room.” Keith insisted.

Gabriel held a flat look, but when Keith refused to back down, relented. “Fine, but you get out when I tell you to. The rest of you, get moving.”

Of course, Lance didn’t take being ordered around lying down. “Now hold on just a-”

“ _Lance_ .” Gabriel didn’t quite know what he looked like just then, but it must have been something to shut up Lance with just a look. “I’ve let you get away with a lot at the Garrison. I’m not inclined to go easy on you right now. So listen here. We’re going inside Keith’s house. You’re going to wait for him to come back. And then you’re going to sleep until morning. _Do I make myself clear_?”

“Crystal.” Lance squeaked.

It didn’t take long for everyone to shuffle their way into the shack. After leaving the three in the living room, or what could pass for it, Keith opened the door to his room and assisted Gabriel with putting the struggling ex-pilot on the bed.

“I don’t need to rest! There’s no time! We have to find Voltron before-”

Fed up, Gabriel tossed him on the bed before looming over the injured man, ignoring the glare Keith sent his way. If there was one thing he learned about taking care of the stubborn, you shut them down before they can get started. Anything else will only end up in more headaches for him later.

“Now look here.” He warned. “I. Am. A. Doctor. _You_ are my patient. I don’t care how you got in my care, only that you’re in it. Until I say you can get out of that bed, _you stay put_ . You couldn’t even walk here by yourself, you’re exhausted and I need to treat that concussion of yours. Not to mention however many _other_ injuries you sustained. You get out of that bed, and well.” He shrugged. “I don’t need to have you awake to treat you.” Shiro paled.

“He will do it.” Lance stuck his head through the door, carrying Gabriel’s bags with him. “He’s a legend in Medical at the Garrison. If you try to escape his checkups, he’ll hunt you down.”

“I believe you were the first in your recruitment group to learn that the hard way.“ Gabriel mused aloud, causing Lance to blush. “There are always a few that fear or just don’t like doctors, but I get them in the end. I always do.”

“Are you even a real doctor?” Keith asked skeptically. “You’re not that much older than I am.”

“Are you saying you don’t know who he is?” Lance demanded, throwing his hands up. “What, do you have a memory problem or something? First me, then the Doc. You gonna forget the Garrison next?”

“I don’t have a memory problem!” Keith snaps. “I just don’t see what he could do that I couldn’t!”

“Right here.” Gabriel cut in. “And Keith, was it?” Getting a nod, he continued. “Lance is just surprised because…” He tried to find a good way to phrase it without sounding arrogant, then sighed. “About five years ago, when I was fourteen, I became a certified medical officer.” He ignored the surprised and smug looks. “As it was unprecedented, my face was plastered everywhere. It took quite a while to die down because when I applied for Galaxy Garrison, interest in me flew up again.”

“Though,” He tacked on, “I think I recall seeing Shiro’s face on a lot of the newspapers a bit before. Something about your job as a pilot..?”

Understanding dawned on Shiro. “That must be when I graduated. I set the records for the simulations and the papers played it up by claiming I was the best pilot of our generation.”

“I don’t see how it’s possible that you missed it. He’s the one who made everyone in the Garrison have check ups at least once a month. More if you got injured during combat class.” Lance shot a condescending look at Keith.

Keith turned slightly red, but he looked ready to retort, and Gabriel wasn’t willing to suffer another argument between them. He had enough of that when escaping with Shiro. “That doesn’t matter right now and I don’t need distractions while I work.” He grabbed both of them by their arms and forced them out. “I’ll let you know when I’m finished.”

He closed the door, locked it, then put a chair under the doorknob for good measure. He turned to face Shiro trying to get up. “What do you think you’re doing.” His face darkened. “Get. Back. In. That. Bed.”

When he was sure Shiro wasn’t getting up again, Gabriel dug through his bags for an instant ice pack and handed it over.

“Pop the bubble in the pack and shake it. Then hold it up to your head where it hurts the most.” He instructed before going for painkillers. “Do you have any places other than your ribs that hurt? And don’t lie to me.”

Although Gabriel couldn’t see it, Shiro looked to the side for a moment in mild guilt. “My left ankle is slightly sore.” He reluctantly admitted. “I think it happened when I fell out of my ship. I landed on my right arm roughly too, but it’s a prosthetic.”

Taking out an ankle brace, bandages and some bruise ointment, Gabriel replied, “That doesn’t mean you’re not hurt. I don’t know a lot about that field - even if I don't think much applies to something like your arm - but I do know, that the impact could strain the area of the body that it’s attached to. Now sit up straight.” He ordered.

“Hmm.” Gabriel pressed gently on Shiro’s ribs. “How bad does this hurt?”

“Not much.”

“And here?” He moved to the other side and felt him wince. “Ah, nevermind. Nowhere else on this side?”

“No.”

“Do you have any bruises or aches?”

“Um,” Shiro thought about it. “Maybe on my back? Not too sure since breathing already hurts.”

Gabriel grunted an acknowledgement. “Painkillers first then.” He took too out and gave them to Shiro. “I’ll get some wat-” Shiro simply dry swallowed them. “Or that works too. They’ll kick in in about an hour. Look at me now.”

After examining both eyes and not seeing anything out of the ordinary, he hummed. “Your concussion isn’t too bad. You would have been fine if it wasn’t for your ribs. Without being able to breath as well, you made yourself more dizzy. All that yelling earlier didn’t help matters. Arm up.”

“I don’t think you can do much.” Shiro said bitterly. “This arm is just about as connected to me as it could be.”

Gabriel ignored what he said. Annoyingly, he thought, didn’t know of Shiro’s normal state so he couldn’t be sure, but there might be the tiniest amount of swelling in the area. He went for his bag again to get a couple of smaller ice packs and bound them together around the arm just in case.

Moving on to the ankle, he carefully took off the shoe and rolled up the pant leg. It was red and swollen, but very lightly. You could only notice it if you were looking for it. He took the bandages and wrapped up the ankle tightly before putting a final ice pack on it. Then he went to the closet and pulled out a couple of towels and put them underneath to support it.

“Lie back down and sleep.” He ordered. “You’re concussion isn’t bad enough that we’ll have to wake you and you look like you haven’t slept in weeks. _And_ ,” He cut Shiro’s protests off, “you should be able to walk with an ankle brace in the morning, which is when you can explain what you’re talking about.”

“We don’t have enough time!” Shiro exclaimed. “The Galra are on their way to Earth right now!.”

“You are the only one with any idea of what you want us to look for in the first place.” Gabriel crossed his arms. “If you can’t think straight then we’re just wasting time. Not to mention that we have no idea where to start looking in the first place. Go to sleep. I’ll wake you at dawn which is in-” He checked his watch. “Four hours. Now, _sleep_.” The last part was said with a pointed glower at the injured man in bed. After a short while, Shiro relented and laid down. Gabriel waited for another half an hour to see that he was asleep before heading out, nearly tripping on Keith in the hall.

Keith shot to his feet. “How is he?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “He’s fine. All he needs to do is take it easy for a couple of days. He’ll be able to tell us what he’s so worried about in the morning. The earliest I’ll allow you to wake him is dawn because he _needs_ his sleep. If I find out that he got up earlier than that…” He let the threat hang in the air, though it didn’t faze Keith.

“I also need to either borrow your hoverbike or have you take me to the nearest town.” Gabriel continued. “I don’t have many supplies on me or the resources of the Garrison anymore. It’s always better to be more prepared.”

Keith nodded. “I’ll take you, I won’t be able to sleep and this is as good a distraction as any. I had a nap earlier in the day as well, before I went to get Shiro. The others are asleep over there.” He gestured to the living room. “Though…” He trailed off and shook his head. “Nevermind. It can wait”

Gabriel scrutinized Keith’s face long enough to make him fidget, before dropping it. “Alright, let’s get moving then.”

 

* * *

 

If Gabriel had any doubts about how safe they were from the Garrison, they were put to rest after the trip to town. It seemed that Keith’s place was about as far from it as it was from the town. The Garrison and town were about half as far from each other. Thankfully without four other people on the bike, they made good time.

Once they hit the city, Gabriel directed Keith to the bank. He didn’t have any cash on his person and he needed to make some big purchases. While there, he opened another account under a different name, stating he wanted to give it to his cousin outside as a surprise sixteenth birthday present next weekend. Transferring 50,000 dollars would have seemed strange, if he didn’t do this every year with _double_ for his parents.

In fact, he transferred as much as he could for his parents at the same time. He didn’t know when he might be able to do this again after all. Abducting someone from Galaxy Garrison is probably a crime, no matter the intentions.  He hesitated, but opened a fourth account with all of the remaining and put it in his brother’s name, on the condition that he would get it when he turns 18.

They went to a clothing store next. Gabriel directed Keith to pick out a few things for Shiro, since he seemed to know him better, and looked for a disguise. Most places with medical supplies knew his face so it would be better to be incognito.

After picking out a beanie, sunglasses, and dress clothes to wear, Gabriel paid for their purchases, clipped the tags and wore them out. The two of them then went to the place where Gabriel usually ordered his personal supplies from. Their standards for equipment were the best. It didn’t hurt that the prices were decent too.

When they arrived, Gabriel undid his mid back length braid and stuffed his black hair in his new beanie. He bought six basic first aid kits, four different sets of general medical supplies, and a couple medical sanitation kits. He stopped by a convenience store next door to get snacks because he was running low (He refused to live without _some_ kind of snackage on him at all times. Even protein bars are better than nothing.), then remembered the others and suggested to Keith that they should pick up breakfast while they’re at it.

When he agreed, saying that he didn't have enough to feed everyone at his place, they went to a fast food chain and ordered burgers for everyone. Gabriel insisted on buying more than they needed as he didn't like leaving anyone out and he had money to burn anyways. Keith attempted to pay for his portion, but Gabriel shut him down before he could take out his wallet.  In the end, they returned to the cabin with food to feed everyone for the day and then some.

By the time they got back the sun was rising and there was no point in going to sleep. Keith went to go make coffee and Gabriel sorted out his purchases.

He packed his bags until they were on the verge of bursting with the most important stuff and left the rest out. Still, even considering that the bags were as large as suitcases, a lot was left over. Most of the remaining were snacks, the first aid kits and old supplies that were replaced, though Gabriel did manage to fit some (a lot) of beef jerky in.

(So sue him. He really likes it okay.)

Looking over at Shiro sleeping, he decided he could delay a little longer and went to the kitchen to unpack the food. Then he grabbed the clothes Keith picked out for Shiro and lay them on the bed.

While he did manage to kill another fifteen minutes, it seemed like he must uphold his promise now. Luckily for his ankle, Shiro didn't move too much in his sleep so he should be fine. Unfortunately for Gabriel, as soon as he reached to check it, Shiro woke up.

Violently.

Shiro’s eyes snapped open, slightly dilated from panic and adrenaline. Before either of them knew it, his hands were clenched around Gabriel's throat and Gabriel struggled against his captor.

It didn't the long for Shiro to realize where he was and he let go of Gabriel as fast as he could. Gabriel hit the floor hard as he gasped for breath and rubbed his throat.

Shiro was already babbling mile a minute. “I'msosorry. Ican’tbelieveIevendidthat. Ishouldhavewarned-”

“Shiro.” Gabriel said gently. “I'm fine. It's okay. You didn't know what you were doing. It's not your fault.” Gabriel got up and tried to approach Shiro, but he flinched back so Gabriel stayed where he was.

“Listen,” He started, “Keith picked some clothes out for you and there's food in the kitchen. When you're ready you can join us. Okay?”

Shiro shuddered as he let out a breath and nodded. Satisfied that Shiro would come out sooner or later, Gabriel pointedly turned his back and left to get a cup of the coffee Keith was brewing. He may never be more than average height because of how early he started drinking it, but working as a doctor of any kind makes coffee a blessing from the gods.

It seemed that Keith understood that he would want some because it was passed to him as soon as he entered. In addition to Keith, Pidge seemed to be clutching a mug of the black substance like a lifeline. Ten minutes later and Lance stumbled in. Catching sight of the coffee, he made a noise of disgust before making a beeline to the burgers. He had wolfed down three of them by the time Hunk made his way over and started in in his own food with everyone else. Shiro came in not long after and Gabriel cleared a seat for him. He wanted to make another pot of coffee anyways.

In contrast, Shiro was the first to leave, heading outside. Keith was quick to follow, rapidly downed the rest of his coffee to do so. Lance and Hunk started a discussion on something or another as they returned to the living room, leaving the two coffee-addicts left. They sipped their drinks in silence until they heard Keith and Shiro return. Pidge left the mug on the table, but Gabriel took all three mugs and cleaned them before throwing out any garbage he could find. When he was finished, he walked in to hear Hunk talking.

“-looks a lot like a Fraunhofer line.” 

“Frown who?” Keith asked.

“It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element, only, this element doesn't exist on Earth.” Hunk explained. “I thought it might be this Voltron. I think can build a machine to look for it, like a Voltron Geiger counter.”

Lance grinned. “Hunk, you big, gassy genius!”  

“It's pretty fascinating, really.” Hunk says, “The wavelength looks like this.” He held out a hand made drawing of the wavelength.

“Give me that!” Keith snatched the paper from Hunk to put it against a picture of the rock formations from a distance. They matched up perfectly.

“Hunk.” Shiro said seriously. “How long would it take you to make that tracker?”

Hunk starts at being addressed, shocked out of the daze that everyone fell into. “Um. I need parts. Specifically a transmitter and receiver. And maybe a few other things too…” He thought about it. “If I had everything I needed, it should take about hour. Half that if Pidge helps me.”

“Take anything that you need.” Keith offered. “I brought in most of this stuff so I could find that energy source in the first place.”

“Alright!” Gabriel clapped his hands, alerting everyone else to his presence. “Now, I don’t know everything that’s going on quite yet-”

Lance raised a hand “I’ll bring you up to speed, Doc.”

Gabriel nodded his thanks. “-but I do know that if we’re going to be looking for this “Voltron” we need to be able to _get there_ in the first place. We may have managed to fit on Keith’s hoverbike once, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to do it again.”

Keith shook his head. “We won’t. After the night it had, I would need to fix it up to be capable of handling everyone’s weight. Thankfully, we won’t need it.” He gestured around him. “I built this place here because the energy source is just past the cliffs over there.”

“Then come on Lance, I really shouldn’t be in here while they work.” Before anyone could begin to understand that statement, Gabriel paused on his way back to the kitchen. “Oh, and Shiro?” He waited until he had Shiro’s attention before unleashing a terrifying smile. “If you strain something after all the work I put into you, I will make you _regret_ it.”

Satisfied with seeing his frantic nods, Gabriel left the room, hearing a mutter of “Is he always that scary?” behind him.

Lips twitching into a smirk, Gabriel decided to startle them a little more. “Lance!” He shouted, making sure to sound demanding and impatient. The racket of Lance scrambling to catch up caused him to snicker.

 

* * *

 

“Okay, I admit it.” Lance says, staring at the rock formations before him. “This is super freaky.”

As promised, Hunk and Pidge managed to build the tracker with plenty of time to spare. A 45-minute walk later led the group to be standing with a clear view of the stone outcroppings, though that wasn’t the main reason for Lance’s statement.

There was an eerie feel about the area. Something about the deserted feel, the complete silence made them cautious. It also made the beeping of Hunk’s scanner all the more obvious.

Hunk started. “I’m getting a reading.” He moved forward, trying to get a clearer signal. They made their way past several of the pillars when the sounds intensified. Hunk rushed ahead of the others to find a cave. When everyone caught up, even Gabriel, who fell behind slightly when his bags got stuck momentarily, they stepped inside.

“Whoa.” Hunk breathes in awe. He wasn’t the only one amazed though. The only one not fazed by the sight of what had to be hundreds of carvings on the walls was Keith. Though, that didn’t mean his attention strayed from them.

“What are these?” Shiro asks.

“These are the lion carvings I was telling you about.” Keith said. Lance was only half-listening in favor of a closer look at the carvings. Gabriel watching him out of curiosity. “ They’re everywhere around here.”

“Hmm.” Lance brushed a hand against one to remove the dust blocking the view, when they suddenly lit up. “Whoa! What?” In fact, all the carvings in the cave began to glow a brilliant, otherworldly blue. The group backed away from the walls to stand together.

“They’ve never done that before.” Keith said, bewildered.

_Crack. Crackle-crack._

Everyone looked down to see the stone they were standing on break apart. No one had time to react before they all fell.

Fortunately, they weren’t falling straight down onto hard stone. Instead, they slid down on a steep angle, slick with water. However, that didn’t mean that everyone took this turn of events calmly. Who would?

Screaming the entire way down, Gabriel faintly wondered if this was where his life would end again. Dying multiple times did not make the experience any more pleasant and falling to your death was a painful one. With a lack of anything to hold onto, he tightened his fierce grip on his bags further.

Eventually, they reached the end of the natural slip-n-slide and spilled out to fall a short distance into a shallow pool of water.

Lance was the first to get up. His eyes widened in amazement when seeing a giant metal blue lion encased in some kind of hexagonal dome. “They are everywhere.”

Gabriel was the next on his feet, prioritizing Shiro and his condition. Once, he checked Shiro over and didn’t find any new injuries, he moved on to Pidge, repeating this process until he was sure everyone was fine.

Together, they stood before the metal giant, completely focused on this blatantly _alien_ machine.

“Is this it?” Pidge asked. “Is this the Voltron?”

“It must be.” Shiro said.

“This is what’s been causing all of this crazy energy out here.” Keith approached the dome around it. After a moment, the rest followed.

“Looks like there’s a force field around it.” He calls back.

Lance moved side to side. “Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?”

“No.” Shiro states.

“Yeah.” Lance said, more to himself than the others. “The eyes are totally following me.”

Keith felt around the barrier. “I wonder how we get through this.”

“Maybe you just have to knock.” Lance narrowed his eyes and leaned forward to do just that, only for him to rear back in surprise when the Lion’s eyes began to glow and the barrier around it began to disappear.

The carvings beneath the Lion shone and seemed to shift. No one other than Gabriel noticed this, their eyes set on a vision different than the one before them. They yelled in shock at something he couldn’t identify.

“Whoa.” Keith and Lance breathed.

“Uh,” Lance raised his hands a little, gesturing in front of him. “Did everyone just see that?”

“Voltron is a robot.” Hunk exclaimed. “Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!”

“And this thing is only one part of it!” Pidge adds. “I wonder where the rest of them are.”

“This is what they’re looking for.” Shiro said.

“Incredible.” Keith whispered.

“Um.” Gabriel raised a hand. “I didn’t see anything. What are you all talking about?”

Keith turned to face him. “You mean you didn’t see five mechanical Lions joining together to form a giant robot?”

“Nope.” He shook his head. “I just know that while you were staring off into the distance, the carvings beneath the Lion started glowing. The Lion just feels strange to me.”

“Strange?” Shiro asked. “How?”

Gabriel shrugged. “I don’t know. It just does.” From the start it sort of felt familiar, but not. He really had no way to describe it. He couldn’t put his finger on what it felt like to him. It was like trying to describe the color blue. It just was.   

The Blue Lion shifted while they talked, lowering its head and opening its jaws to form a pathway directly in front of Lance. He stood in wonder before smirking and moving inside.

He came upon a chair and casually sat down with one leg on a knee. “Here we go.”  

Only, after a moment, the seat wasn’t as still as before. It moved forward, bringing Lance in front of systems that came online the instant the chair stopped moving. Lance will forever deny that he shrieked.

Everyone approached the back of his seat, - though, unbeknownst to the others, Gabriel avoided touching anything - having just entered the Lion. Looking over Lance’s shoulders they could see a screen start up, showing the cave they were just in.

Lance laughed as Pidge and Hunk voiced sounds of fascination. “Alright. Very nice.” He said.

“Okay, guys,” Hunk interrupts. “I feel the need to point out, just so that we’re all, you know, aware. We are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now.”

Lance stilled. “Whoa. Did you guys just hear that?”

“Hear what?” Keith asked.

“I think it’s talking to me.” Lance leaned forward, examining the controls, before pressing a combination of buttons to get the Lion moving. It roared as it threw its head up high.

Pidge and Hunk screamed from surprise, but Lance only grabbed the handles that popped up.

“Okay. Got it.” He said. “Now let’s try this.” He punched the handles forward and they burst out of the cave they were in.

The lion flipped in the air, jets firing from its paws. It coasted along the ground for a few moments before flying into the sky.

Inside, all but Lance were screaming. “You’re.” Keith shouts. “The worst. Pilot. Ever!”

The lion dived toward the ground, running hard and fast as Lance yelled, “Isn’t this awesome!”

“Make it stop. Make it stop.” Hunk begged, expression sick.

“I’m not making it do anything. It's like it's on autopilot.” Lance retorts before the Lion blasts off to the sky again.

“Where are you going.” Keith demands.

“I just said it’s on autopilot!” Lance snaps, annoyed. He continued more calmly. “It says there’s an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we’re supposed to stop it.”

“What did it say _exactly_.” Pidge stresses.

“It’s not like it’s saying _words_.” Lance explains. “It’s more like feeding ideas into my brain, kind of.”

“If this thing is the weapon they’re coming for, why don’t we just, I don’t know, give it to them? Maybe they’ll leave us alone.” Hunk suggests. “Sorry, lion. Nothing personal.”

“You don’t understand.” Shiro said seriously. “These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There’s no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead.”

“Oh.” Hunk says faintly as the others send accusing looks at him. “Nevermind then.”

The Lion moved fast, rushing out into space when a large black and purple spaceship appeared in front of them. They gasped in astonishment. It was at least twenty times the size of the Lion. Easily.

“Holy crow!” Hunk said fearfully. “Is that really an alien ship?”

“They found me.” Shiro whispered softly.

Bright purple lasers started firing from the ship at the Blue Lion, though none managed to hit.

“We gotta get out of here!” Pidge announced.

“Hang on!” Lance shouts as he maneuvered the Lion through the deadly shots.

“Okay, I think I know what to do.” Lance declared.

“Be careful, man.” Pidge stared at Lance accusingly. “This isn’t a simulator.”

“Well, that’s good. I always wreck the simulator.” Lance joked. He twists the controls and fires a bright blue beam of his own from the Lion’s mouth. It hits the side of the ship and cuts a shallow but long line through to the front.

“Let’s try this.” Lance pulls the handles back and the Lion shoots forward to use its claws to leave a gouge in the side of the ship. Parts of the ship explode behind them.

“Nice job Lance.” Shiro complimented.

“That’s some fancy flying you did back there.” Gabriel added.

“Thanks.” Lance said. “I think it’s time to get these guys away from our planet.”

 

* * *

 

Back on the alien spaceship, the commander was reporting the ship’s status.

“Lord Zarkon, the escaped prisoner and his people found the Lion.” He said. “It attacked us and is heading out of the system.”

“Follow that lion and alert all ships in the area to intercept.” Zarkon ordered. “Capturing that lion is your first and only priority.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” He turned toward the ship’s pilots. “Full power after the Lion!”

 

* * *

 

“Oh, no!” Hunk yells.

“They’re gaining on us.” Pidge warns.

“It’s weird.” Lance states. “They’re not trying to shoot at us. Th-They’re just chasing.”

“Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?” Hunk asks rhetorically. “I am not on board with this new direction guys.”

“Where are we?” Keith questioned.

Shiro stared at the screen. “Edge of the solar system. There’s Kerberos.”

“It takes months for our ships to get out this far.” Pidge said incredulously. “We got here in _five seconds_.”

Space twisted a distance in front of them, energy visibly coming from it. A circle bearing similarity to the carvings below the Lion when they first found it surrounded the anomaly.

“What is that?” Hunk warily asks.

“Uh,” Lance speaks up. “This may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through there.”

Pidge looks at Lance. “Where does it go?”

Lance looks unsure. “I-I don’t know.” He says quietly. “Shiro, you’re the senior officer here. What should we do?”

“Whatever is happening, the lion knows more than we do.” Shiro says. “I say we trust it, but we’re a team now. We should decide together.”

No one spoke up against the decision, silently agreeing. When everyone looked at Lance in unity, he took it as it was.

“Alright,” He said, keeping the Lion heading straight for the warp. “Guess we’re all ditching class tomorrow.” The portal managed to close just before the spaceship caught up.

 

* * *

 

Though they managed to escape the aliens on their tail, it was from one problem into another. The portal was unsteady, shaking everyone inside the Lion. But while it was harsh for the others, it was torture for Gabriel.

His very being was fighting against the warp. It felt like the core of what made him, _him_ was being ripped into. It took all he had to keep himself together. He never felt anything like this. Nothing but death ever hurt this badly, and even death didn’t manage to tear into him like this did.

Gabriel didn’t know what was happening to him. He didn’t know how long it was. He lost all sense of time and space. All he knew was that the pain stopped when they got out and he was grateful for that, his body sagged in relief. Silently, he swore to never go through those things again.

While Gabriel was recovering from that harrowing experience, collapsed in the back, everyone else was shaking off the effects of the rough trip.

“Whoa.” Lance starts. “That was... “

Hunk cuts him off with a grunt that progressed into full out vomiting. He managed to let out a, “So sorry.” before resuming.

Lance looked away in disgust while Pidge adjusted his glasses. “I’m just surprised it took this long.” Pidge said.

“I don’t recognize any of these constellations.” Shiro said as he took in their new location. “We must be a long, long way from Earth.”

“The lion seems to want to go to this planet.” Lance reveals. “I-I think it’s going home.”

The Blue Lion dove toward the planet, the heat from atmospheric reentry negligible to the passengers inside. The G-forces were another matter. Everyone gathered together to brace for the landing, Gabriel only just making it before they hit.

“Guys, personal space.” Lance said annoyed. “Hunk, your breath is killing me.”

“Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying to a mysterious _wormhole_.” Hunk questions. “Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?”

“It got us away from that alien warship, didn’t it?” Lance retorts.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re _in_ an alien warship.” Keith says.

“Oh, are you scared?” Lance taunts.

“With you at the helm? Terrified.” Keith deadpanned.

“Alright, knock it off.” Shiro orders. “No one’s happy to be in this situation, but we’re here now. If we want to get through this, we’ve got to do it together.”

“So,” Pidge asks, “What do we do?”

“First, we find out where we’re headed. Lance?” Everyone looked at Lance, anticipating his answer.

“I don’t know.” Lance scanned their faces. “I’m sorry. The lion’s not talking to me anymore. Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Shh! Listen. I think I hear something.”

“I’m hearing it too.” Keith said.

“It’s, uh- It’s kind of a-” Hunk starts, but is interrupted by Gabriel reaching over and smacking Lance over the head, causing him to let out, not only an “Ow.”, but also the rest of his gas.

“Knock it off.” Gabriel said peeved, hand already covering his nose.

As the others complain and grab their faces, Lance rubs his head and says, “Fine, fine. But seriously. There’s a castle up ahead.”

“Wow.” They all stared at the beautiful castle ahead of them. It also seemed to be the only civilization around.

As the Blue Lion landed in front of the castle, Shiro ordered, “Keep your guard up.”

“Something wrong?” Pidge asked.

“My crew was captured by aliens once.” He explained. “I’m not going to let it happen again.”

As he turned to disembark the Lion, Gabriel stopped him. “Wait. We don’t have any idea if we can even breathe the air here. Lance,” He turned to face the pilot. “Can you ask the lion if we’ll be fine?”

“Um. Hold on a second.” Lance closed his eyes, focusing on something only he could hear. “Yeah, yeah we can.”

Gabriel relaxed. “Then let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

They just managed to get out and take in the sight, when the lion moved behind them and let out a loud roar.

“No! I knew it was going to eat us! No!” Hunk whimpered, cowering behind Shiro. Peaking out over a shoulder, Hunk blinks in surprise. “Oh, the door is open.” He looked back at the lion. “Guess I was wrong about you.”

The six of them went inside, Gabriel refusing to leave his bags behind. They were the only thing familiar here. Like hell he was going anywhere without them.

It was dark and the going slow. They barely could see anything around them. It was lucky that the halls were large and nothing seemed to be in their way.

“Hello?” Hunk called out, hearing the echo of his voice. When the others looked sharply at him he just shrugged. Seeing as nothing happened, the group relaxed.

“From the size of the lion,” Pidge remarks, “I expected these steps to be bigger.”

Suddenly, light beamed on them from the ceiling. They gasped as a computer asked them to hold for an identity scan. Thick rings encircled each of them, going over their bodies from the bottom to the top.

“Why are we here?” Shiro demands. “What do you want with us?”

It seemed that he wouldn’t get an answer. Instead, the lights in the castle started turning on one by one, leading a path through one of the corridors.

“I guess we’re going that way.” Pidge said.

With a clearer view of the inside, they proceeded more assured of themselves, though some of them remained more on guard than others.

 

* * *

 

As they walk deeper into the castle, lights turn on. Their footsteps echoed, the silence in the group making them louder than they would have been. Eventually they made their way down into a circular room with a raised platform in the center. On that platform, eight smaller circles were in the floor surrounding a control panel.

“Where are we?” Lance asked.

Pidge examined the control panel, watching as it lit up “It’s, It’s some kind of control room.”

_Kshh. Shhhh._

Everyone gasped as two of the smaller circles raised up from the ground to form pods. Only these pods had two obscured figures inside.

Hunk hid behind the control panel. “Are these guys… dead?”

As the smoke dissipated, one of the tanks opened, revealing a beautiful dark skinned woman with long white hair and pointed ears. Her eyes snapped open and she reached forward crying “Father”. Her breaths were harsh and she fell, unable to support herself. Lance caught her before she hit the ground, but it was only luck that he was so close. Gabriel was already making his way over to check on her, more on instinct than conscious thought.

“He-llo.” Lance said, enraptured by the girl as she looked up into his eyes.

“Who are you?” She asked. “Where am I?”

“I’m Lance. And you’re right here in my arms.”

She looked at Lance more closely. “Your ears.”

“Yeah”

“They’re hideous.” She stepped back. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing’s wrong with them!” Lance says indignantly, letting go of her at the same time. “They heard exactly what you said about them!”

She suddenly grabs his ear, twists an arm behind his back and forces him to his knees. “Who are you?” She demands. “Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?”

Lance crumbles immediately from the pain. “A giant blue lion brought us here. That’s all we know.”

She let go and Lance sags in relief. “How do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to it’s paladin?” Gabriel prioritizes the friend he knows before the possible enemy before him and ignores the woman as he checks to make sure she didn’t dislocate Lance’s shoulder. She seemed content to ignore him in favor of the others. Fortunately, Lance was fine, though if she jerked his arm the slightest bit more, he would have needed to pop it back in.

“What are you all doing here? Unless...” She reaches some sort of conclusion. “How long has it been?”

“We don’t know what you’re talking about.” Shiro said. “Why don’t you tell us who you are. Maybe we can help.

“I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea.” Allura gains a determined look and moves toward the control panel. Pidge observes what she does curiously on the other side. “I’ve got to find out where we are. And how long we’ve been asleep.”

“Okay.” Pidge comments as a screen appears in front of Allura. “That’s how that works.”

“We?” Gabriel questioned.

He didn’t have to bother. It became clear as the second pod opened up, revealing an older man with light orange hair and a moustache. “Enemy combatants!” He shrieks, immediately getting out and jumping at Lance who dodges, losing his balance on the landing.

“Quiznak. You’re lucky I have a case of the old “sleep chamber knees”. Otherwise, I’d grab your head like this, wrap you up like so - One, two, three - Sleepy time!” He gestures ridiculously while speaking.

Lance, for whatever reason, joins in on this nonsense. “Well, before you did that I’d-” He flails in the air, mimicking attacking. “Like that.”

“Really? How could you do that when I’ve already come at you with this?” He stabs the air in front of him repeatedly with a hand.

Everyone but Allura watched them play fighting. Not like they had anything better to do. “Man, these guys are good.” Hunk says.

The computer beeped, drawing their attention to Allura. “It can’t be.” She whispered, though everyone could hear her.

“What is it?” Coran asked.

“We’ve been asleep for 10,000 years.” She says, horrified. “Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, Father is gone.” Coran looked down in sorrow. “Our entire civilization....” Her features twist in hate. “Zarkon” She spits out.

Shiro gasps, eyes widening slightly. “Zarkon?” He breathes.

“He was the King of the Galra.” She explain, tone biting. “A vile creature and enemy to all free people!”

“I remember now.” Shiro closes his eyes for a moment before looking up. “I was his prisoner.”

“He’s still alive? Impossible!” Allura shook her head in denial.

“I can’t explain it, but it’s true. He’s searching for a super weapon called Voltron.”

Allura’s gaze snaps back to Shiro. “He’s searching for it because he knows it’s the only thing that can defeat him, and that’s _exactly_ why we must find it before he does.”

“Again, we?” Gabriel questioned. “When did we get volunteered for this quest?”

Shiro looks at him with a hard gaze. “You “volunteered” when you looked for the lion with us. Zarkon is a threat to, not just the Earth, but the galaxy and I won’t just roll over and let him have it. Too many were his prisoners for far too long. He needs to be stopped!”

Gabriel huffed, but didn’t say any more. Instead he turned his focus inwards - ignoring the others as they talked - feeling unsettled at how active his core has become. It tugged and pulled, straining against its confines, begging to be released. In all of his existence it never did anything that he didn’t direct it to do. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so snappy with Shiro, - Shiro had cause to want to fight the Galra after all - but the entire situation set him on edge. He never experienced anything like this and admittedly, to himself at least, he got used to not much surprising him. He got used to the status quo. But now… Now he was thrown off the deep end.

The alarm blaring shook him out of his thoughts. Attention was drawn to the screen displaying a ship similar to the one that chased them away from Earth.

“A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!” Coran warns.

“How did they find us?” Allura asks in shock.

“I’m not sure, but I bet it’s Keith’s fault.” Lance says petulantly.

Keith narrows his eyes. “Say whatever you’ve got to say to make yourself feel better.” He turns to face Lance. “After getting us _stuck_ on the other side of a _wormhole_!”

“I’ll stick you in a wormhole!”

“Stow it, cadets!” Shiro forcefully separates them. “This is not time to place blame. It’s time to work as a team. How long until they arrive?” He asks Coran.

“At their speed?” Coran fiddles with his fingers. “Oh, well, carry the two I’d say probably a couple of days.”

“Good.” Allura lays her determined gaze on everyone. “Let them come. By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon’s empire!

A burp punctuates her statement and Hunk spiles sheepishly. “Sorry. Food goo.” His stomach rumbles.

“Princess,” Shiro interjects, “There are five of these lions. How are we going to find the rest?”

“Follow me.” Allura says. She turns to lead everyone to a different room in the castle. A few hallways later, and they are in the central power room. Allura stands beneath the crystal in the center of the ceiling, bathing her in blue-green light.

“King Alfor connected the Lions to Allura’s life force.” Coran explains. “She alone is the key to the lion’s whereabouts.”

Allura releases a harsh breath and opens her eyes. A projection of the galaxy seems to come from her, enveloping the room.

“Whoa!”

“These are coordinates.” Pidge remarks as he examines a planet in front of them. “The Black Lion looks like it’s in the same place as the Blue Lion.”

“Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage” Coran teases.

“Very observant.” Allura smiles. “That’s because the Black Lion is in the castle.”

“To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon’s hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle.” Coran elaborates. “It can only be freed if the other four lions are present.”

“As you have found, the lions choose their pilots.” Allura continues. “It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain.”

Allura shifts the projection so that the Black Lion is in front of Shiro. “The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times. Someone whose men will follow without hesitation. That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.”

She shifts the projection again. “The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion.”

And again. “The Blue Lion-”

Lance interrupts. “Hold up let me guess. Takes the most han-” Gabriel covers Lance’s mouth with a hand, ignoring the muffled protests. “Sorry, Allura. Please continue.” He apologizes.

She sends a funny look their way. “As I was saying, the Blue Lion is the friendliest and the most accepting of new pilots. It is confident and takes a pilot of equal conviction. It has already accepted Lance as it’s pilot, so let’s move on.”

The projection shifts again, this time in front of Hunk. “The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.” Hunk looks around fruitless hoping she wasn’t talking about him.

Allura moves on, forming a new projection from her hands. “The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It’s faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable.” The projection moves in front of Keith. “It’s pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion.”

“What?” Lance asks belligerently. “This guy? Why not Gabriel?”

“Like I want to.” Gabriel shoots back, regretting letting go once Hunk’s turn was up. “I’m not a pilot anyways. I’m a doctor.”

Allura ignores both of them. “Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion’s coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the castle. After 10,000 years, it might need some work.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find it soon.” Coran says confidently. “They don’t call me “The Coranic” for nothing. It’s because it sounds like “mechanic”.” He fiddles with his moustache. “So Coranic, mechanic. It’s not-- It doesn’t sound exactly like it. It’s similar.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes. He gets the feeling that he’ll be hearing Coran babble a lot more in the future.

The Lions roar, coming together and forming a projection of Voltron. “Once all the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe.”

“Awesome!” Hunk shouts as the projection fades.

“Oh...” Pidge breathes in awe.

“Wait. Okay, so we’re going to be in there and flying Lions.” Hunk rambles. “Got that part. How do lions turn into legs? Also, is this going to be a long trip? I have to pee. Do you people pee? 

“We don’t have much time.” Shiro interrupts. “Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, you stay here with Gabriel. If you locate that Red Lion, go get it.”

“In the meantime, I’ll get this castle’s defenses ready. They’ll be sorely needed.” Allura said.

“I’ll ready a pod and load the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion.” Coran says.

Not long later, and the teams of two are out of the atmosphere, ready for their missions. Allura stands at the castles controls, concentrating on creating the wormholes, as well as preparing the castle’s defences.

“We can only keep the wormholes that lead to the other Lions open for two of your Earth hours, so you’ll have to be quick about your work.” Coran informs them over the communications in the ships. ”The good news is that according to my readings, both planets are relatively peaceful. So, if you do get stuck, they could be relaxing places to live out the rest of your lives. Enjoy the trip!”

Just before they enter the wormholes and get sent to their destination, there is a chorus of protests over the comms that underlined their displeasure at finding out such crucial information as they leave.

 

* * *

 

“Excuse me, Coran.”

Coran looked up from where he was repairing the castle’s systems. Gabriel stood a few paces before him, holding the bags that seemed to be fused to his hands. At least, he didn’t see him let them go for longer than a few minutes.

“Yes, Gabriel. What can I do for you?”

Gabriel opens his mouth, closes it, then lets out a harsh breath. “Look, I need something to do. And. Well. I’m a doctor, but I can’t do anything for you and Allura because you’re not human. Is there something like a library in this castle? Preferably with medical information?”

“Hmm.” Coran twirled his moustache. “There is something like that yes, but you wouldn’t be able to read it. Everything here is in Altean. The only reason we can even understand each other is because of the Castle. Though…”

“Yes?” Gabriel asked eagerly.

“There.. _might_ be a few of Allura early books when she was learning to read. If you’re willing to learn they should be there.”

“If there’s anything I’ll take it. I can’t call myself a doctor is I can’t treat the two of you.”

“Very well. It’s down that hall, a left, a right, and three doors down. The books should be on the third shelf, second column, fifth row up. ”

“Thanks Coran.” Gabriel turns to leave, but just before he reached the doors, Keith stopped him.

“Hey, listen.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck. “...Back at my place, before we left, I was trying to say that I never meant to offend you or anything when I didn’t recognize you. I just didn’t pay attention to anyone back then and when I did see you in the medbay, I just thought you were an intern or something like that.”

Gabriel blinked and smiled. “It’s fine. I don’t really look for the recognition. If Lance never brought it up you just would’ve never found out.” He considered how unsure Keith looked. “Would you like to come with me to the library? I might need a hand carrying the books back.”

Keith’s shoulders relaxed. “Sure.”

“Come on then.”

 

* * *

 

Keith grunted under the weight in his arms. “You know, when you asked me to help you with the books, I didn’t expect you to want to take an entire shelf in one go.”

Gabriel shrugged. “Well I was going to make several trips, but this just sped things up.”

“You’re barely carrying anything!”

“Incorrect!” He spun around, walking backwards. “I have my bags and two books under each of my arms! You on the other hand, have only books and a better grip on them.”

“Wouldn’t have to carry this many if you just left your bags behind.” Keith muttered.

“What was that?” He _smiled_.

“Nothing!”

“That’s what I thought.” He face forwards again. “And we’re here!”

“Finally.” Keith released a breath as he set down the veritable tower of books in his arms. “What are these for anyways?”

Gabriel reached for one as he replied. “Learning Altean.”

“Learning Altean!” Keith sputtered.

“Mhm.” Gabriel frowned at the inch thick, character filled pages as he flipped through. “I don’t know anything about Altean physiology and if I’m going to be the one treating everyone here, that actually means everyone. I can’t ask Allura and Coran to translate everything for me, so I’m going to have to learn to read. Nothing in this castle is in English anyways.”

 Keith stopped. “That’s right! How have we been understanding them in the first place?” 

Gabriel went back to the front - or at least what he thought was the front - of the book. “Coran said something about the castle being responsible for that. I didn’t care to ask further. It’ll make things easier if I just have to replace the alphabet instead of having to learn an entire new speech pattern. Aha!” 

Gabriel pressed on one of the symbols on the first page. It sunk into the page and lit up, releasing the sound “guh”. 

“Child proof and simple.” Gabriel grinned in delight. “Perfect for me to learn from!”

Keith hovered for a moment, unsure of what to do, then left to see if Coran had anything he needed help with. Gabriel never noticed. He dove into the books, determined to learn as fast as he could.

 

* * *

 

Coran hummed an ominous tune as he scoured the castle systems for anything amiss. And when Keith tapped his shoulder he did _not_ scream his lungs out. He did _not_.

Well, maybe a little.

Keith winced from where his hands flew up to his ears. “Okay, first? Ow. Second, is there anything for me to do? I’m getting restless waiting for the others and doing nothing. I help Gabriel out for a bit, but he’s deep in those books now.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

“What about getting me some food from the kitchens?”

Keith stared at Coran.

Coran looked at him hopefully.

He sighed. “Fine. Where is it?”

“Right, down the hall, turn right again and it should be the second door.”

Keith turned to leave. “Well, it’s something to do.” He muttered under his breath.

It didn’t take long to find the kitchen. But it dawned on Keith that he had no idea what Coran would eat. Staring into the probably rotten food in what was likely to be the Altean version of a refrigerator, Keith began regretting agreeing to this.

During his third attempt to make something edible with what was in the space fridge, he had a epiphany.

Didn’t Coran try to give Princess Altea some kind of green goo thing?

Keith looked around for anything that might hold it and his eyes landed on a dispenser on the wall. Jackpot. Grabbing a plate, Keith inspected the machine curiously.

Once he was mostly sure he knew how it worked, he held the hose over the plate and pressed down. The very same goo from earlier came out and collected on the plate. When he finished, he hooked the hose back on its hook and left with the plate.

“Here.” Keith took a petty sort of delight at the slight disappointment on Coran's face. If he wanted something else he should have gotten it himself.

“Well,” Coran sighed, “I hoped for a sandwich, but this is fine. Oh, by the way, Shiro and Pidge should be landing in a minute so-”

Keith was gone before he finished.

 

* * *

 

Gabriel looked up when Shiro and Pidge entered the room, Keith on their heels.

“Hey.” He waved. “Your trip go okay?”

“It was easy.” Pidge boasted. “We we’re practically handed it by one of the inhabitants of the planet. So, whatcha doing there?”

“Just learning to read Altean. I need to be able to treat Allura and Coran if they ever get hurt, but none of the books here are in English so…” He closed the book and set it aside. “Yeah.”

“I’m glad you made it back, but the others need to hurry.” Allura shifted her fingers ever so slightly. Two familiar faces popped up, showing that Hunk found the Yellow Lion. “Paladins, please hurry back. I can’t hold the wormhole much longer.” Unable to focus on maintaining the connection while keeping the wormhole open for long, Allura quickly cut the feed. Lance and Hunk managed to pull through soon after and she relaxed as they safely returned.

“You made it.” Allura breathed as Lance and Hunk came through the doors.

“Yeah,” Lance rubbed his shoulder, “just barely. That was a nightmare. I almost puked out there. I felt like Hunk!”

“Think how I felt. I am Hunk.”

Pidge and Shiro shared a look. “Yeah.” Pidge said. “We had a tough time too.” They smiled.

“Did we find the Red Lion yet?” Shiro asked.

“Allura just located it.” Coran pulled at his moustache. “There’s a bit of good news and bad news. The good news is, the Red Lion’s nearby. The bad news is, it’s on board the Galra ship now orbiting Arus.”

Coran flashed a smile. “But wait, good news again. We’re Arus!”

“They’re here already?” Shiro asked, alarmed.

“Yes. Guess my calculations were a bit off.” Coran looked at his fingers. “Finger counting - It’s more of an art than a science. Hmm?” Coran turned at the sound of static. A projection of a screen flickered on, showing an alien covered in purple fur, yellow eyes, and large ears. This one even had a robotic right eye.

“Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the Lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy this planet.” The screen flickered out.

In the silence that followed, Shiro was the first to try to take command of the situation. “Alright, let’s not panic.”

“Not panic?” Hunk’s voiced incredulously. “The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship towards us. - We only have four Lions-”

“-Technically, only three working Lions.”

He patted Pidge’s shoulder. “That’s right. Thank you, Pidge. Three working Lions and a castle that’s, like, 10,000 years old.”

“Actually, it’s 10,600 years old. You see my grandfather-” Hunk shoved a finger in Coran’s face.

“Thanks Coran. Thank you for that. See? Now is the perfect time to panic!”

“Wait!” Allura interrupted. “This castle has a particle barrier we can activate.”

“Girl you’ve already activated my par-”

“Lance!” Gabriel and Shiro stared at each other for a second, but the moment was forgotten in favor of more important matters.

“The particle barrier won’t hold Sendak’s ion cannon forever. The Galra technology must have advanced since we fought them last.” Coran mused aloud.

“Panic now?”

“No. We’ve just got to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly.” Shiro said firmly.

“I say we pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day.” Lance suggested, looking at Hunk.

“I second that. Yes.” Hunk nodded rapidly. ”We tried to find all the Lions, right? We gave it the old college try. Couldn’t do it. We only have three. We can’t form Voltron. I guess we could form a snake. Or a worm! To go through that hole, Lance, that you were talking about.”

“Then it’s settled.” Lance smiled and strut up to Allura. “Allura, you ride with me. One of you take the old guy.” Coran turned red in anger.  

“We can’t just _abandon_ Arus.” Pidge glared furiously between Hunk and Lance, trying to get both of them at once. “The Galra will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them.”

“Okay.” Hunk held up his hands. “If we run, them maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth,. We form the snake-worm thingamajig and we - _swoosh_ \- out of here.”

“Sendak could destroy the planet and then come after us anyway.” Keith argued. “Staying is our only option.”

“Here’s an option.” Lance leaned forward and mimed zipping his lips. “Shut your quiznak.” Allura and Coran gaped at him behind his back, horrified.

“I don’t think you’re using that word correctly.”

“What do you know, Mullet?”

“We’re staying.” Keith glared.

“Leaving!” Lance yelled.

“Staying!” Pidge hollered.

“Snake!” Hunk cried.

Gabriel raised his hands. “I’ll leave my vote to Shiro.”

“Stop fighting!” Shiro scowled. “Now I seem to be the tiebreaker here, and I say that the decision goes to Princess Allura.” He turned to her. “These are your Lions. You’ve dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we’re facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?”

“I...I don’t know.” Allura looked down in distress. Coran looked at her sadly.

“Perhaps, your father can help.” He said.

“My father?” Allura whispered in confusion.

“Come with me Princess.” Coran looked at the others. “The rest of you, stay here. We’ll be back shortly. We have enough time for this much.”

Without another word, Coran left with Allura unsurely trailing along behind him.

 

* * *

 

Tension reigned in the silence the departure of the Alteans left behind. Lance and Hunk banded together and kept their back turned against Keith and Pidge who did the same. Shiro looked between them, distressed at the clear break in the team.

Gabriel watched them all and sighed. Taking pity on Shiro, he spoke up. “Get over yourselves.”

Heads whipped around to face him. He cut them all off before they began. “No. Seriously. _Get over yourselves_ . You’re supposed to be a team, but the only thing I see here is a bunch of brats who are throwing tantrums when they don’t get their way. Well newsflash, _life isn’t fair_. Whether we like it or not, we’re fighting a war now. All of us are.”

He glanced at Shiro. “Some of us longer than others, but we’re in this together. Keith and Pidge, they have a point. The Galra seem to just want the Lions above all else. It is a very real possibility that they would follow us like when we left Earth. It’s not unreasonable for them to want to leave either. After all, they were just in a battle. But!” He raised his voice before Hunk and Lance could start pushing. “Lance and Hunk, they have a point too. There is no _guarantee_ that they would follow us. For all we know, they could be the type to follow through on threats no matter what, which would mean that we are directly responsible for this planet’s fate.”

He took a breath. “I’m not a leader, but I can see that Shiro’s decision to hand the choice over to Allura is the correct one. Whatever happens here is out of our hands now, but whether we stay or flee, we must work together. If we fight amongst ourselves, we’ve already done the Galra’s job of defeating us. I don’t care what you think, just don’t let it get in the way when the final decision is made.”

Shiro sent a grateful look at Gabriel. “He’s right. There is no opposing force against the Galra. Voltron is all that’s left. We’re a team and we should start acting like one.”

The four exchanged glances and let the matter drop. With mutters of agreement, the tension in the air slowly dissipated, leaving a silent anticipation in the air.

When Allura came through the door in battle clothes, the five paladins lined up and paid attention with Gabriel observing from the side.

“You five Paladins were brought here for a reason.” Allura began. “The Voltron Lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone. We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe's only hope. _We_ are the universe’s only hope.”

“We’re with you princess.” Shiro said for them all.

She turned and lead all of them to a different room. Five suits were preserved in tubes that lit up upon their entry. Each had pieces of it that were different colors. One for each Lion.

“These are your suits of armor.” Allura declared.

As the Paladins examined their new clothes, Coran whispered to Allura. “Princess, are you sure about this? They aren’t exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer. No offence.” He directed the last part at Gabriel.

He shrugged. “None taken. I know what idiots I have with me.”

“That may be Coran.” Allura said. “But they’re all we’ve got.”

“Boys!” Shiro shouts. “It’s time to suit up!”

It didn’t take long for them to put on their armor, and soon, they were led to the only table in the room. When Allura put her hand on it and the top disappeared, it was clear that it was a kind of safe instead of a tabletop. Underneath, four crescent shaped objects with handles were revealed. Like the armor, they were different colors, but the Black one was missing.

While Allura spoke, they floated up and went to their respective paladins. “The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron. It takes a distinct shape for each paladin.”

Allura continued to talk to Shiro as the others discovered what their weapons were. “Shiro, I’m afraid your bayard was lost with its Paladin.”

“What?” Gabriel asked, annoyed that Shiro wouldn’t be as well equipped as the others. “Why in the world-”

“It’s fine Gabriel. I’ll just make do without it.”

“It’s only fine until you get hurt because you don’t have a way to fight back!” Gabriel barked. “You’re already injured, you should have something to protect yourself with!”

“He has a shield built into his armor.” Allura offered. Gabriel just glowered at her, though he did seem to let up slightly.

Shiro placed a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do now, but I’ll grab one of the guns off the droids, okay?”

Gabriel scowled, but let it go. They didn’t have the time to argue about this. “Fine.” He stalked back to the control room. He knew he shouldn’t have left his bags. He would have loved to smack some sense into Shiro with them.

Faintly, he heard the others following, but didn’t stop. They would catch up eventually.

Surreptitiously, he rubbed his chest.

 

* * *

 

When everyone was in the control room, Allura brought up a diagram of Sendak’s battleship. It was massive, with what seemed to be hundreds of rooms.

“You’ll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak’s ship.” Allura informs them.

“That’s a pretty big ship.” Keith says. “How are we gonna know where the Red Lion is?”

“It’s not a matter of “we”. It’s a matter of “you”.” Pidge corrects.

“Pidge is right.” Hunk agreed. “Once we get you in, you’ll be able to feel its presence and track it down.”

“Yeah. You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the desert?” Lance asked.

“Uh-huh. You made fun of me for that.”

“And I’m proud of that, but turns out it’s exactly like that mumbo-jumbo.”

“Keith, remember, the Red Lion is extremely temperamental. You’ll have to earn its respect.” Keith nods.

“Alright. Everyone looks at Shiro. “Here’s our plan of attack.”

 

* * *

 

Gabriel paced restlessly. He couldn’t stand this. He was a _doctor_ . He was supposed to keep people from hurting, not sending them out to get hurt and _then_ heal them! Prevention, not cure. What’s worse is that he only had his imagination as to what was going on. Was the plan even working? Did Sendak manage to capture them all anyways? What if-

He was pulled from his thoughts as Coran grabbed his arm. “We’re putting the particle barrier up. If you want, you could oversee some of the defenses. More hands are always helpful.”

Gabriel shook his head. “No. You don’t want me anywhere near that stuff. Complicated tech has a habit of breaking on me and Altean weaponry is so advanced that it counts. The only things that I can work are related to medical purposes. Otherwise they have to be simple and near fool proof. In fact, I should probably leave.

Coran blinked. “Come now, it can’t be that bad.”

He was utterly unimpressed.

“Particle barrier up!” Allura announced. Coran gave a “See!” look at Gabriel. He just held a hand up. A moment later it flickered and died.

Coran’s face twisted in confusion. “Is that what’s supposed to happen?”

Allura opened a small panel beneath the control table, revealing several tilted crystals.

“All the barrier crystals are out of alignment. We have to fix it immediately. Without the particle barrier, we’ll be defenseless.”

“Alright,” Coran stood up. “Gabriel it’s your time to shine. Reach your little fingers in there and fix it.”

His eye twitched. “I’m still too big you idiot!” He moved to smack Coran, but nearly tripped over the mice that ran into the opening.

“The mice!” Allura cried.

“How do they know how to do this?” Coran asked.

“I can hear them talking to me. I think our minds are connected. It must be from sharing the cryo pods for 10,000 years.”

The mice managed to realign the barrier crystals and made their way out. Allura attempted to turn on the particle barrier again and it went up flawlessly. The mice cheered and they smiled at their antics.

“Thank you friends.”

Coran put his index fingers to his temples, straining and grunting. Allura gave him a flat look. “Coran, what are you doing?”

“I’m trying to get them to make me a sandwich.”

Gabriel stepped up. “Allow me Allura.” He dope slapped Coran and Coran fell to the floor. Gabriel rubbed his hand, but smiled. “I needed that.”

“By the way,” He looked at Allura, “I’ve been meaning to ask, now that I’ve calmed down. You haven’t been awake for the last 10,000 years, so how do you have a map of Galra battleships?”

“Oh that.” She brought up the image again, only this time with a similar one next to it. “These are the old Galra ships. We scanned for anything resembling the signature of these ships. When they came within range, the castle’s sensors took a full scan of their weapons and design. The castle was created to remain mostly stationary and defensive, so more effort went into detecting our enemies at range than fighting them up close.”

A ping alerted them to approaching flyers. When the screen turned on to show all four lions, the three of them cheered in relief. Allura lowered the barrier to give them entry and they landed in the castle’s hangers. Probably meant for the Lions themselves.

They watched from the control room as Shiro disembarked the Green Lion and stood in front of a locked hanger, the Lions surrounding both it and him in a semi-circle. The Lion’s eyes began to glow and on a screen, representations of all five lions appeared. Slowly, lines connected in the center of all five lions and the locked hanger opened at the same time.

However, they celebrate too soon. Alarms blared in warning, showing Sendak’s battleship and fleet approaching.

“Oh quiznak!” Coran cursed.

Allura commed the Paladins. “Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere. We need Voltron now!”

The smaller aircrafts immediately began their attack on the castle, bombarding the particle barrier with heavy fire. The Lions went out to face them and landed just inside the particle barrier, awaiting orders.

Eyes widening, Allura reached out and enlarged the image they had of the Galra battleship. “Oh no! They’re-!”

Her warning was too little too late. The ion cannon was fully charged and launched before he could finish. The shockwaves shook the castle and land it was on viciously. The particle barrier itself was besieged in flames. The particle barrier managed to hold on, but it weakened their fortifications immensely.

“The barrier gets weaker with every blast. Once our shield goes down, the castle will be defenseless.” Coran cautions.

Allura’s fingers fly across the controls “I can give you cover with the castle defences for a while, but you have to form Voltron _now_ or we’ll all be destroyed!”

“Gabriel!” Allura barked. Below, to the left of Coran, a set of screens popped up. “Get on that monitor and start targeting the flyers. It’s simple. Lock onto a target and fire!”

Gabriel’s face twisted in conflict. A second later made his decision for him. He was knocked off his feet as another blast from the ion cannon hit the particle barrier. The barrier flickered, but persisted.

The doctor scrambled up to his feet and managed to get to the controls. Thankfully, it was as simple as Allura said it would be. All he had to do was touch a target twice, but to successfully do this was harder in reality. He switched between flying targets and still one at will, hoping to keep them from finding out his attack pattern.

He ignored the feeling of his core reaching out and snatching something from the space around him. He ignored the way it warped a little more after each time a flyer fell. He couldn’t let them down. Not when this was something he could do to help them.

Several of the flyers suddenly changed their paths. Following them led him to seeing the Lions out of the barrier and chased. He fired and hit a couple of them, but they were out of his range before he could do more.

His gaze hardened and turned his focus on the closer flyers. He didn’t become a doctor without learning to prioritize. Inside, he prayed that they would be okay and pull through. He hoped that they would make it back and pushed those thoughts in the back of his mind, concentrating on his assignment.

The castle shook violently. Only this time, the tremors didn’t stop.

“Allura,” Coran yelled. “The particle barrier is at 20 percent and counting. We won’t last much longer!”

“I’m losing firepower!” Gabriel called back as he carefully, but rapidly fired back. “We’ll only last another ten minutes!” The castle shook again. “Make that seven!”

“Agh!” Allura braced against the shockwaves and momentarily opened up communications with the Paladins. “Quickly, Paladins! Our energy levels are getting low!”

The siege on the castle wasn’t getting any better. Although they were managing, they were being pulled in so many different directions. The Galra had the advantage in this firefight. With the castle stationary and surrounded, the situation looked grim.

“No!” Coran shouts. “The Paladins are stuck in the Galra’s tractor beam!”

None of them had any time to worry about the Paladins, however. The Galra fired one more blast from the ion cannon, but this time, the shields collapsed.

The castle was open to attack.

Whether by luck or arrogance, instead of sending the flyers to barrage the castle with heavy fire, the ships were recalled instead. The trio at the controls were able to have a breather, but their attention was on the bleak situation in front of them.

All five Lions were trapped. The battle was lost and the war stopped before it ever begun.

“Please…” Gabriel begged, eyes locked on the sight. “Please let them escape. Please…” Prayers spilled forth from his lips in every language he learned over the years. He’s an atheist but he called for any higher power to let them make it out alive. He wished for a miracle. Not for the first time this day, he was frustrated with himself for not being able to truly help them.

“Come on, come on…” Allura clasped her hands together. “You can do it, Paladins. I know you can. You’re the universe’s only hope.”

Nothing happened, and in the suspense their hopes sank. As they watched the ion cannon clarge for the final time, they braced for the end.

When they only felt the shockwaves of the shot barely missing the castle, they looked up and saw smoke arising from the ion cannon. Amidst the smoke was a single figure. Slowly, the figure was revealed in a position that only just managed to shift the aim of the cannon enough to miss.

Cheers erupted from Coran and Allura. After a moment of watching them, Gabriel grinned and joined in.

The Paladins formed Voltron!

Voltron ripped the ion cannon off the battleship and tossed it to the planet to stand like a warped monument. It attacked the ship without hesitation, blasting and tearing it apart. With a final strike, it flew straight through the ship and landed on the planet in victory.

 

* * *

 

The Lions separated and landed in front of the castle, The Paladins gathered in front of the castle doors and the Alteans rushed to join them. Gabriel stayed back to grab his medical supplies first, but he didn’t waste time in sprinting to them.

Soon he was close enough to hear Coran say, “-fleet of them! It’s not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe.”

“Defenders of the Universe, huh?” Shiro smiled. “That’s got a nice ring to it.”

“Shiro!” Gabriel zeroed in on the Paladin that he _knew_ was injured. “Why the _fuck_ are you still standing! _Sit your ass down!_ ”

Shiro dropped to the ground in a cold sweat. He may have just faced a Galra battleship, but when he got like this Gabriel just had an aura that demanded you listen to him.

“I can’t believe you!” Gabriel ranted as poked and prodded at Shiro. “Didn’t I warn you not to make your injuries worse? Huh? Answer me!”  

“We-Well, we _are_ the only ones able to form Voltron.” Shiro pointed out. It did nothing to ease Gabriel’s glower.

“That’s no reason to keep _standing on a sprained ankle!_ ” He bellowed. “I let it go in the castle because you weren’t straining it and we were faced with more important matters, but it should have occurred to you that all that fighting would have made your injuries worse!”

He raised Shiro’s leg. “Look at your ankle now! Does this look okay?!” Everyone grimaced. What before was only slight swelling was now bright red and bloated. “If it wasn’t for the ankle brace, your ankle would be broken right now!”

“..I forgot I was injured.” Shiro quietly admitted.

“Forgot!” Gabriel roared. “Your health should _not_ be a footnote!”

“How did you not notice that it got so bad?” Hunk asked incredulously.

Gabriel calmed down a little. “That would be my fault. It’ll wear off by tomorrow, but I gave him special pain medication of my own creation. It numbs pain to the point that you would only notice if you broke an arm if it happened in front of you. I never expected him to go into a fight, but I _did_ expect him to be more careful.” He shot a sharp look at Shiro, who winced. “From now on, I’m only using it for the really bad cases. It seems you need the pain to keep from hurting yourself further.”

“Okay, okay.” Shiro rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry.”

Gabriel huffed as he re-wrapped the ankle. “It seems that you got lucky. Your ankle was the only part of you that got really hurt. You may have a few more cracked ribs, but they’re not broken at least. You’ll be fine in a few days. A week tops.”

He finished with Shiro and Keith immediately appeared at Shiro’s side to help him up. “Allura, is there anywhere in the castle that I can look over the others?”

She started at being addressed. “Ah, yes. The Medical bay is just across the cryo pods. If I may, the pods also double for healing.”

Gabriel shook his head. “That may be true, but even if it can heal Alteans, we don’t know what effects it’ll have on the human body. I’ll have to examine them first. I’m afraid I don’t quite remember the way though, If you would…?” He swept out an arm.

“Very well. Follow me. The Lions know to go to the hanger.” True to her word, the Lions flew inside the hanger as they entered the castle.

A few minutes of walking a not unfamiliar path later and they were in a decently sized room with two beds and several chairs. Gabriel placed his bags on one of the beds while everyone settled down.

“Alright, Pidge first.” He waved him over. “What hurts?”

One by one, Gabriel looked over the Paladins and their injuries. Nearly an hour later, he was finishing up with Lance when he noticed how tired everyone looked. They were nodding off in their seats.

He clapped his hands to gain their attention. “Well you’re bodies will hate you in the morning, so I suggest you stretch before sleeping, but other than Shiro, you just have bruises. All you need at this point is rest. Allura, Coran. I’m sorry to say that I can’t diagnose you, but I suspect the same for you with the barrage on the castle.”

“Right then.” Allura stood up. “You’re all free to pick any room in the castle to stay in, but I suggest you stay somewhere nearby on the same floor. It wouldn’t be wise to completely separate after all. Each of the rooms have a closet that will fabricate the clothes you request and a personal bathroom, so I don’t think that you’ll have any problems.” She smiled. “Have a nice night Paladins. You deserve it.”

When Allura and Coran left, presumably to their own rooms, Lance stretched and walked out, “Night guys. I’m hitting the hay.”

As if it was some sort of signal, the others began making their way out as well.

“Maybe I can get a room by the kitchens.” Hunk muttered as Shiro and Keith turned the corner.

Pidge rolled his eyes. “I just want a bed.”

Gabriel packed his stuff away for the final time that night, but hesitated to take his second bag. He considered it for a moment, before moving it to the only desk in the room and leaving it there. The other he took with him as he searched for the nearest room to the medbay.

When he dropped his bag just inside the room around the corner. He slid down a wall and closed his eyes. Once more, he was glad that he never got close to anyone. If they had know him, they would have seen the strain in his shaking limbs as more than simple exhaustion.

Silently, he wept for the lives he took that day. It never got any easier, regardless how often he needed to resort to it. Regardless how many lives were wasted. It was just another reminder of how much he hated war, no matter on what scale or where it was.

How much he hated that his core seemed to thrive on death.

With tears paths staining his face, he meditated and fell into his mind, finally able to focus on calming the raging energy of his being.

 

* * *

 

Keith kept an eye on Shiro’s ankle. Drugs or not, forgetting an injury entirely meant that they actively pushed it out of their mind. He was taking as much of Shiro’s weight as he could, but Shiro stubbornly kept walking with both legs.

“Here’s fine.” Shiro said, pointing at a room nearby the control deck. “I can get there on my own, so get some sleep, alright Keith?”

Keith couldn’t help it, he snorted. “I just got you back after you went missing for over a year, and you think I’m going to let you just walk over there on a bad ankle?

Shiro didn’t say anything and just continued moving. After Keith settled Shiro on the only bed in the room, Shiro grabbed Keith hand and stopped him from leaving.

Shiro waited patiently for Keith to talk, but sighed when it was clear he wasn’t saying anything.

“...So you dropped out, huh?”

Keith stilled, not meeting his eyes, then shrugged. “Wasn’t really worth staying there any longer. Besides, I followed the energy in the desert when I left so it all worked out.”

“Keith-” He cut himself off and tried again. “What happened?” _After I disappeared_ , he didn’t say.

Keith’s face snapped around to stare at Shiro’s in anger. “They tried to pass off the Kerberos missions as a failure due to pilot error! They said you were all dead! I didn’t believe them so I went looking for answers, and I found some.”

He paced in the room. “I confronted Iverson for the truth of the Kerberos mission. He tried to feed me that bullshit of the mission being a failure due to pilot error, but I knew you were alive! I could feel it and I was right! They were covering up the entire incident as an accident and when Iverson threatened to have me demoted, I punched him and quit.”

He threw his hands up. “I couldn’t stand it anymore, Shiro! None of those bastards really knew you and yet they started slinging trash about you with that story. ...It wasn’t worth being there without you. You’re the only family I have.” He said more quietly.

Shiro’s eyes softened. “Keith, I’m here now. I’m right here and we’re together. We’re part of a team now, okay? It’s not just me that’s with you, you have everyone else now as well.”

“...I keep expecting this to be some fever dream.” Keith reluctantly admitted.

Shiro shifted his grip so they were holding hands. “Well, I’m not going anywhere. Okay?

Keith looked skeptical and Shiro sighed. “Look, I’ll continue to be here. Now, really, get some sleep. It’ll do you good. You look exhausted. I’ll see you in the morning. Promise.”

He hovered by the door a moment longer, taking a good long look at Shiro, as if try to imprint the image into his brain. “Goodnight Shiro.”

Keith walked through the hall, half asleep and lost in his thoughts. He turned a corner before he realized that he should get a room, and went forward into the closest one. He hung up his jacket, kicked off his boots and went to sleep, too tired to do anything else.

 

* * *

 

A few doors down from the common room, not that he was aware of that, Lance was looking through every nook and cranny in the room he chose.

He cried in success when he found a cabinet full of alien products that appeared to be for skin care. He already had a quick shower, but he refused to give up his daily routine if he had a choice. A lot of work went into looking so good. His sisters would kill him if he…

That’s right. Lance paused in applying the space moisturizer. His family doesn’t even know what’s happened to him. He pushed the thoughts from his head. They’ll get back to Earth soon enough. They just had to beat Zarkon and they’ll be able to go home. He grinned. His siblings will be so jealous that he’s come back a hero!

 

* * *

 

Pidge sat on his bed, bag on the floor, staring at the picture in his hands. He closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath.

“I’m coming for you.” He whispered. “I’m so close. So please. Please just hold on a little longer.”

 

* * *

 

Hunk laid on his bed staring at the ceiling, thinking about the day's events. Finding a giant Blue Lion. Blasting off to who-knows-where in space. Waking up an alien princess from a 10,000 year nap. Finding a giant Yellow Lion of his own. Combining with four other Lions to form a giant robot to fight a battleship.

He rubbed a hand over his face. Becoming a Defender of the Universe? He scoffed. Yeah right. He knows himself. He knows that he’s a coward. He’s no fighter. But he’s just distracting himself.

He forced himself to really think about the entire Universe resting on his shoulders. Sure, he has help, but the Universe is a big place. He admits that he’s scared, but come on! Who wouldn’t be in his shoes? Billions upon billions of lives are depending on him to fight and he just doesn’t think he could do it. He just wants to go home, but… But.

He can’t just leave the rest to fight by themselves. He can’t just ditch his friends. Yeah, he doesn’t really know Keith, Shiro or the Alteans, but he’s been through a lot with Lance and Pidge. He would even go so far as to call Gabriel a friend, though that’s more because he always caught them when Lance managed to convince him to sneak out and let them go with a warning.

He chuckled. Sneaking out. That’s what started everything. He wondered, if they never left, would the others ever have found the Blue Lion? Maybe Gabriel would have been able to pilot it, but somehow he just couldn’t picture it.

Without them, they would have never been able to pilot all five lions either, right? And hey! They managed to form Voltron and fight off the Galra ship so that’s something!

Hunk yawned. All these “what ifs” aren’t important now anyways. It’s been a _long_ day and he deserved his sleep. His eyes fell shut and breathing evened out. He was out in an instant.

 

* * *

 

Allura stared at the stars through her window. How many, she wondered, are underneath Zarkon’s control? How large has his empire grown in the 10,000 years they’ve been asleep? How long has the Universe been helpless against him?

How many lives have been lost under his rule?

She shook her head. This was no time for those depressing thoughts. The Universe had hope now. It’ll take time to spread, and longer to form a true fighting force, but one day it’ll be free from Zarkon’s reign once more.

She drifts off into restless slumber, ignoring the whisper in the back of her mind asking _Will they really be enough?_

 

* * *

 

Coran gazed at the shelves of knick knacks he gathered over the years as he grew up. They were reminders of a civilization now long past. A civilization that, for him, stood tall mere hours ago. These were some of the last pieces of home. The last pieces of Altea.

Memories and mementos of ancient history. 

He resolved to find a way to preserve them better in the morning, and turned over in bed to sweet oblivion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we learn a bit more about Gabriel! (In no particular order):  
> -He killed before, many times. Thing is that those times are far between his lives and he mostly represses the effects. He can't exactly ignore it now, though he'll try.  
> -Something about everywhere he's been so far bothers his core. There's a reason why its so active.  
> -His core is a mass of energy. He's the only one with a core like his.  
> -He tries to be normal and succeeds most of the time. Thing is, he knows he's not normal and that makes him subconsciously put on an act around others. Not a big one, just slightly different enough to how he actually is that it's easy to cover up when he slips. He has never before been pushed to maintain it while stressed to this point so that's why he's relieved that no one really knows him at the end. Because his body doesn't really shake. He can hurt, but he has the steadiest hands in the world.  
> -He thinks differently from other people. He fundamentally views life as a priority and will disregard anything else if asked to save a life. However, the better he knows someone, the more likely they will be placed at the top of his list to save. He's not perfect. He selfishly wishes for those he knows to have the best.  
> -He has trust issues. Bigger trust issues than anyone on the team. When you have your trust broken several times the same way in different lives, you're allowed to have trust issues. Though, he's the most trustworthy person alive. He takes the privacy policy very seriously.  
> -The bags are a kind of security blanket for him right now. They're something familiar in a time where everything is changing for him.  
> -He sucks with technology. Give him a smartphone? He'll break it. Ask him to fix something? It'll break down further. let him use a computer? It'll gain a virus. If he's using the stuff for medical purposes it'll be fine, but that all leaves him for anything else. Pidge will keep him away from all of his tech when he finds out.
> 
> Also, on the note of Pidge's gender: I will refer to them with male pronouns until they reveal the truth. There will then be a scene where the issue on how to address them is confronted.
> 
> Question, I've been thinking of posting another version of this fic, only with relationships added to the mix. This would mean there would be this story, as GEN and another for the people who want pairings. What do you all think?
> 
> I may add notes as I see fit later.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they learn to live with each other, different kinds of fights are fought, and the impacts of the previous day are shown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, if I don't show something it usually means that things happen as they did in cannon.
> 
> Also, I might have lied a little. It's not so much massive Cannon Divergence as much as a very realistic spin on the show. Actual canon divergence will be happening later. Case in point: Episode 11 will not be happening. Or at the very least, it won't happen until MUCH MUCH later.
> 
> I'll add more notes later.

 

_ WAH WAH WAH _

Gabriel jerked awake from where he was lying on the floor. He scrambled to his feet, on high alert. His mind raced as he tried to figure out what was going on and his heart sank at Allura’s call to arms. Would they really have to fight again?

He swept down and grabbed his bag on the way out, dashing to the control room. Only to slow down as Allura’s warnings got more severe with every second. He full out stopped just around the first corner as she said they wouldn’t last much longer. 

Where were the blasts attacking the castle? Where where the shockwaves from defending? Why wasn’t the particle barrier being hit? It was nothing like it was yesterday. Something just didn’t add up. 

He resumed his journey to the control deck, only this time at a more sedate pace. He took this time to straighten out his clothes a bit more, though, no doubt he still looked like a mess. Coran’s incredibly fake cries of sorrow soon after cemented the idea that it wasn’t an actual attack on the castle. 

“-up for hours getting the castle back in order. We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess who failed.” 

“Failed  _ what  _ exactly.” Gabriel narrowed his eyes as he joined the others.

“Oh, just a test on everyone’s response time if we were to be attacked by Zarkon while we slept. Not much.” Allura said sarcastically. “Which, by the way, you failed miserably.”

“And  _ why _ ,” He testily asked. “Would I rush to defend against a nonexistent threat. You’re drill needs work  _ Princess _ . I figured out what was going on while coming here. But that’s not important now.  _ What in the world were you thinking! _ ” 

“I beg your pardon?” She said frostily. 

“It’s been,” Gabriel checked his watch. “Six hours since we went to bed. Most of us were running on dregs of energy. What in the world possessed you to wake us up  _ three hours early _ .”

“We don’t have any time to waste!” She snapped. They were head to head now and everyone else was wisely staying out of it. “You lazy layabouts should have been up by now!”

“They’re not battle hardened soldiers! None of them have the training required for war!” He snarled, ignoring the growing throb in his chest.

“Which is why they need to start training immediately! Zarkon isn’t going to wait for them to be more comfortable before he attacks!” 

“That doesn’t mean they’re ready to start that training! We never intended to leave Earth so abruptly. We weren’t even given a choice in the matter!. With how unprepared we were, it was a miracle that we were able to defeat the battleship in the first place.”

“But that’s  _ exactly _ my point!” Allura stuck a finger in Gabriel’s chest, unknowingly causing a surge of pain. “It was a miracle, but we can’t afford to rely on miracles! Voltron must be able to form on command or we stand no chance against Zarkon despite having Voltron!” 

Gabriel fumed. Why was she so blind! Couldn’t she see that  _ her _ war had nothing to do with any of them! “And why should it matter! This is  _ war _ ! A war that we shouldn’t be pulled into and yet you seem to think we’re  _ obligated _ to fight against Zarkon!”

“Fine! You want a reason, I’ll give you a reason!” Allura forcefully pulled up a set of controls and projected a miniature of the universe. Most of the planets turned red. She spoke tersely. “While the castle has been asleep it has passively picked up distress beacons from all of these planets. As it has been 10,000 years we  _ must  _ assume that all of them have been conquered by Zarkon. Earth is here.” She points out a planet close to the edge of the empire and tossed a scalding glare at Gabriel. “Why do you have to fight? If we don’t stop Zarkon, Earth is next on the list to be destroyed.”

Gabriel shook himself from the horror that came over him and felt his rage bubbling up again. “They’re teenagers! On Earth, they would never have been allowed to join the army, much less be the vanguard in a war! You can’t just-!” Shiro pulled him back by the shoulder.

“Stop.” Gabriel’s temper flared, but Shiro continued before he could say anything. “I know that they are young. You are too, but you said it yourself. Like it or not, we’re in a war now and we need to fight. There’s no one else that can.”

Gabriel deflated, shoulders sagging slightly. He took note of the faint bags under Shiro’s eyes but resolved to deal with him later. “Fine.” He turned to leave, fists clenched. “I’ll be in the medbay if anyone needs me.”

On his way out, he was a bit more forceful in his steps than he needed to be and he regretted that he couldn’t slam the door behind him.

 

* * *

 

“Well. That just happened.” Lance quipped. 

“Lance!” Shiro scolded, somewhat unnecessarily. Allura appeared to simply be fuming in the remains of her anger, not paying Lance’s comment any attention.

“What?” He asked faux-innocently. “It’s true. The Doc did have good points. I, for one, am completely in favor of getting nine hours of sleep a night.”

“Be that as it may,” Shiro began. “Allura’s right. The other day, we formed Voltron out of sheer luck, not because we knew what we were doing. We need to be able to do it at a moment’s notice. Let’s get to our Lions and start training.”

“Wait!” Pidge spoke up. “I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from Sendak’s ship first.”

“Negative, Number Five.” Coran measured Pidge’s height with his hands. “I have you ranked by height. The prisoners won’t emerge from the cryo pods until tomorrow.”

“That’s right. Now, get to your Lions!” Allura orders.

 

* * *

 

Gabriel threw his bag across the medical bay and screamed until he ran out of breath. His ragged breaths were all that filled the room. He staggered over to a bed and half-collapsed on it, clutching the sheets as his knees hit the floor. 

His hand came up to twist at his shirt, while he tried to regain his breath. Slowly, but surely, his breathing evened out and he could get up. He didn’t bother with standing and just dragged the rest of his body on the bed so he could stare at the ceiling. 

With one final breath, he closed his eyes and dove.

Gabriel appeared before a mass of liquid like strings and branches, and he an ant inside it. He walked along, and his path smoothed itself out from the rough and jagged edges it had. 

It was with a practiced ease that he came upon his core, in the center of the mass. Gabriel scowled. Although he managed to soothe it the night before, nearly all of his work came undone. His core was not flowing with the ease it once always had. 

And he had no idea why.

That, more than anything else infuriated Gabriel. Something was affecting him and without knowing what was doing it, he couldn’t fix it. He knew the symptoms, but not the cause and that’s useless to him.

He raised his hands and made contact with his core. Immediately it tried to consume him, like it tried since the first time it happened. Unlike the first time though, it didn’t surprise him. Gabriel fought with all he had back then and barely managed. Now though, now he was prepared for it.

This time, he let it embrace him. 

His core is what makes him,  _ him _ . There was no reason for Gabriel to fight. He let it take him deeper and deeper, but was careful to not lose himself in the never ending flow of his being. 

When he came to a stop, he knew he was in the center of his core. The precise origin of himself. 

And he could feel everything. 

Each limb, every finger, every organ. His blood, his nerves, his muscles, his bone. 

All of it was at his command. 

And he was terrified. 

Oh, not of himself. That would be silly. No, he was terrified of what his core wanted to do. I yearned to be free to reach his physical form, to  _ change _ it in a way he instinctively knew he would never be able to undo. To reach out and take  _ everything _ from  _ anything _ around him. To grow bigger than anything natural could ever be.

To take the life of others for his own.

His core very nearly consumed him right then. It was only Gabriel’s immovable determination to keep the very lives his core wanted to consume alive that saved him.

He took command. Slowly Gabriel spread his will, his  _ orders _ that his core listen to him. It was a sluggish pace. Every mile he gained in taming it, he lost half that when  _ something _ pulled at him. Though it was tedious and wearisome, he eventually managed to regain full control. This time though, he didn’t stop there. 

Chains and locks appeared all over the extensions of his essence. Broken up and twisted, so that none overlapped. Then he waited and watched. 

He saw how the edges reverted, but when the degradation hit the chains it slowed down. Gabriel smiled. It wasn’t anything like a solution, but he shouldn’t need to maintain them more than once a week from now on.

And he opened his eyes and let out a breathless laugh. The pull on his core that existed since he started this blasted adventure didn’t disappear, but it did weaken significantly. There were spikes where it was stronger, yet he could ignore them entirely. Finally, it felt like he could relax. 

Though, he thought as his smile faltered, perhaps he should have been more understanding with Allura earlier. He had his reasons and he refused to take his words back, but she clearly had purpose in what she was doing too. It didn’t excuse him for taking out the stress he felt from the abnormalities of his essence on her simply because she was a convenient target.

Regardless, he didn’t feel like facing that clusterfuck he created just yet.

Gabriel got up from the bed and left the medbay with a slight bounce in his step. He paused when he reached the control room and let out a breath of relief when no one was inside. He wasn’t quite ready to see anyone again. Scanning the room, he soon found what he was looking for in the corner: The pile of books that he didn’t finish. 

That wasn’t the only thing he discovered though. The screens displayed the lions being attacked by the castle itself. For a moment, he wondered if he would be able to do anything to help, but he dismissed the thought. With his luck, he’d make it worse for them. Besides, Allura was so determined in training them. This was probably just an evasion drill from Altea.

He grabbed the half of the stack he didn’t read yet and made his way back. Gabriel mentally took back the anger he directed at the castle earlier. The doors automatically opening and closing was damn useful when you’re hands were full. 

In the medbay, he set the books down on the only desk in the room, settled into his seat, and began to study, absentmindedly taking a stick of jerky out of his bag in celebration. 

A few hours later, Gabriel closed the last of the books he took from the library and tapped the spine on the table. At this point, he is relatively sure that he has the basics down, though his reading speed is agonizingly slow. However, the only thing to do for that would be practice. 

_ Gurgle. Growl. _

He set the book down and stood up. For all that he managed to ignore his need for breakfast, it seems that he wouldn’t be able to ignore his need for lunch too. He staved it off earlier, but he had to savor the only remaining pieces of Earth food he had. If he only ate them during special occasions, they may last him a few years. The kitchens were on the other side of the castle, so he kept up a fast and steady pace as he reviewed the Altean alphabet in his head. 

No one was inside, so he set about finding a plate. Hopefully, the food goo machines would be willing to work with him. 

Unfortunately, it seemed that they wouldn’t. It took nearly fifteen minutes of struggling with the hose before he got anything on his plate. When it was half-full he called it good enough and gave up. 

As he was leaving the kitchens to take his meal with him, he bumped into Coran and dropped his platter. The floor wasn’t the only thing covered in goo though. It was also splattered all over Coran’s front. 

“Oh!” Gabriel exclaimed. “Sorry, Coran. I didn’t see you there. Here, just let me…” He went to get a cloth, but Coran waved him off. 

“No, no. It’s fine. I’m just lucky I had my apron on before coming in here.” Taking a closer look, Gabriel realized that Coran was right. “I see that you’ve gotten a bit peckish, eh?”

He flushed as his stomach announced that, yes, Coran was right. 

‘Well then, I’ve just set up lunch for the Paladins. You’re free to join in as well. They should be there any minute now.”

Gabriel rubbed his neck. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to join them.” More like he didn’t want to go through the hell of fighting for his meal again. Literally. “Lead the way.”

He took a seat and waited for the others to show up. Fortuitously, they came in and took their own seats a few moments later. 

“Ahoy, young Paladins!” Coran greeted. “I’ve whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you’ll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the Astral conflux!” 

“Smells great Coran.” Shiro complemented. ”Thanks.” All five Paladins and Gabriel reached for their spoons ready to dig in.

Only to be chained up when Coran whipped out a remote. They pulled at their links to find that their restraints would not be released anytime soon. 

Gabriel blanked out. He ignored the world around him in favor at staring at his hands. More specifically his wrists. Unlike the others, his hands were chained together, not apart, but that didn’t mean he was any less irritated. He was hungry damn it!

He tried to disregard it and eat anyways, but when his other hand kept getting in the way of his spoon and he spilled the goo all over the table, he snapped. 

“-No Princess of ours.” Pidge said brashly before being hit in the face with a food goo platter. 

_ Splat _ .  _ SMASH _ .

“Coran.” He asked  _ politely _ , with his hands clearly displayed and slammed on the table. “Why do I have my wrists chained up?” The other go still. They knew the signs and they did not want to attract this monster’s attention.

“Well, I couldn’t figure out how to keep it from attaching to you, but you can still reach your food, so I figured it would be fine.” Coran obliviously grinned. 

Gabriel turned to look at Coran and  _ smiled _ . “Coran, if you don’t get this off me in the next  _ five seconds _ , I will make it so that you have nothing but the wrists you seem to love so much.”

Coran shook his head. “Nope. Sorry. I can’t take yours off without removing the others.” Coran either didn’t notice, or didn’t understand the warnings the Paladins were trying to give him. “None of you are getting those cuffs off until they start working as a team.”

Gabriel violently stood up, his chair flying a few feet. He grabbed the plate in front of him and tackled Coran, screaming. He shoved the goo into Coran’s face and held it there for the few seconds he could before he was thrown off. 

Like a silent signal, chaos erupted in the dining room. The first ever Food (Goo) Wars begun!

Humans VS Alteans

Goo was thrown! Plates piled high were fired! Randomly, Gabriel would douse everyone he could in the goo he stealthily gathered like a nuclear bomb! 

Eventually, they all tired, and when Allura sank back into a seat, laughter rang in the air. 

“Enough!” Allura cut them off. “Do you see what you’re doing?” They looked at each other. She lift her head up and the biggest grin ever was on her face. “You’re finally working together as one!” 

“Hey, she’s right!” Keith smiled as he looked at Lance. 

Lance thought for a moment, then smiled back. “I actually don’t hate you right now.” 

“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Hunk asked.

“Let’s go form Voltron!” Shiro declared.

“HOLD IT!” 

Gabriel’s breaths were visible as he stood between the door and everyone else. He raised his hands. “First of all, Coran.”

“Oh yes! Of course!” Coran’s hand dove into his pockets for the remote, which finally, blessedly, set them all free. 

He rubbed his now free wrists. “Thank you. And Second.” Gabriel walked directly in front of Coran and stared for a moment. Then nodded.

And punched Coran in the face. 

“That’s for chaining me together in the first place.” Gabriel huffed and turned to face everyone else while Coran  faintly muttered something about best intention . “As for the rest of you, before you go running off to form Voltron, I think that  _ actually  _ eating lunch first would help. Though, mind you, I refuse to clean up this mess.”

They looked around and grimaced. Although the five Paladins were covered in goo, so were the chairs and table. That wasn’t even counting the floor. 

“Ba’ll et om esh ates fo u oo eet.” Coran volunteered, clutching his nose. It seemed like Alteans get nose bleeds too, seeing as how Coran blew his nose in a hanky and ended up with a lot more than just mucus. “Sorry, I said I’ll get some fresh plates for you to eat. I’ll be right back.”

“A cleaning drone will come here when we’re done, so I suggest that you just wipe off a seat. And yourselves.” Allura recommended. 

Chuckles rose again as they brushed off the food goo where they could. It’s a good thing that the good isn’t sticky. Otherwise the Paladin armor would have been forever stained. 

They all sat down and, when Coran came back, had a more sedate meal. Conversation flowed more naturally and they relaxed as they ate. Gabriel listened to them talk, but didn’t respond to anything directed at him in favor of stuffing his face. He was starving and frankly? He needed to get back to reviewing those books.

Though he did allow himself to be dragged outside to watch them form Voltron with Coran and Allura. 

“I told you I could get them to do it.” Allura said to Coran. “They just needed a common enemy.” 

Coran crossed his arms and nodded. “It’s true. Like the old proverb says. “A man can be driven to do anything if a beautiful woman is just really, really mean to him.”” 

Allura sent him a flat look and sighed. “Alright. Back to the castle Coran.”

Gabriel held her back as Coran walked in front of them. “Wait.” She tilted her face in his direction.    
“I’m sorry. I needed to apologize. You were right. They do need to work as a team.”

He fiddled with the end of his braid. “I still don’t like this. I may have been stressed when I yelled at you, but I hate war and I hate we’re all dragged into it more. However, I also know that we don’t have any other choice.”

She stopped walking and he stopped with her. She searched his expression for something he couldn’t identify, so he just kept his face as open and honest as he could. 

“I’m sorry too.” He blinked. He didn’t know what he expected, but it certainly wasn’t that. “I wish that Zarkon was stopped before he ever got this far, but I will continue to push the Paladins beyond their limits. I saw my entire civilization fall once because my father sent Voltron away instead of fighting. I will never let that happen again.”

He gave her a sad smile, flashes of a life long past flitting through his mind. “Civilizations come and go, but life will persist and thrive even in the harshest of environments. All I ask, Allura, is for you to keep them in mind too. Not just as the Defenders of the Universe, but as the _ people _ they are.” 

For a moment, Allura wondered if she caught empathy - for her loss? - in his gaze, but it disappeared so fast that she dismissed it. “I will try my best.”

Gabriel turned and continued walking. “That’s all I can ask for.”

 

* * *

 

Gabriel only half-listened to the chatter of the younger members of Voltron, more focused on re-wrapping Shiro’s ankle for the night. When he finished, he didn’t let go, instead holding firm just above the injury. 

“Stay. Put.” Gabriel waited until he got a nod before reaching for one of two different pill bottles. He gave one of each to Shiro, along with a juice pack that he got from Coran earlier. 

“Only take the larger pill.” He watched him swallow, before gathering up the used bandages and getting up to dispose of them. He grabbed both pill bottles and gestured for Shiro to come. “To your room.” 

The others got up after Shiro did, on their way to their own rooms. He paused to look at the only one still on the couch. “Going to bed Pidge?” 

“In a minute.” 

Shiro smiled in pride. “Good work today. We’re really coming together.”

“Shiro.” Gabriel called. 

“Coming, coming.”

They walked silently to his room. Shiro opened the door and Gabriel let himself in. Shiro sat on the bed when Gabriel glared, but he himself elected to lean against the wall. 

“How long have you slept last night, Shiro?” 

Shiro slumped. “I can’t get anything past you, can it?”

“Nope.” Gabriel pushed off the wall. “And you’re avoiding the question. How long?”

He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “A few hours. Usually wake up around then. The night at Keith’s was the most rest I’ve had in a long time.”

“Nightmares?”

“What else?”

“And you won’t take sleeping aids.” It was not a question. 

A shrug. “Don’t want to be unable to wake up.”

Gabriel scowled. “You know that you need sleep right?”

“I know.”

“You know that your body needs rest, right?” Gabriel persisted. 

“I know!” Shiro snapped before burying his face in his hands.

A hand was placed on his shoulders. “...You know you can talk to any of us anytime, right?” 

Silence.

Footsteps.  _ Swoosh _ of the door opening. “The other pill is to help you sleep.” 

_ Swoosh _ .

Shiro didn’t move for a long moment, before straightening himself out and digging into his pocket for it. 

He stared at it. 

He put it back and rolled over on the bed for another restless night, pocket heavier than before.

 

* * *

 

Listening outside the door, Gabriel silently urged Shiro to take the medicine. When he just heard the shifting of sheets instead of the crinkle of juice, he frowned.

Irritated, Gabriel stalked through the halls. He could never understand why people refused to take care of themselves. His pace slowed into a more sedate manner. But then again, he could never understand dreams or nightmares. He never had them after all. 

Perhaps Shiro had valid reason to not want the pill. 

“Oof.”

Gabriel looked down to see Pidge knocked off his feet. He held out a hand and Pidge took it.

“Sorry-” They both started and stopped. Gabriel gestured for Pidge to go first. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

He snorts. “In that case, we’re both in the wrong. I was lost in my thoughts too. Call it even?”

Pidge smiled and nodded. “Sure.”

“Going to bed, then?”

“Yeah, night.” Pidge continued down the hall. 

Gabriel frowned as he watched Pidge walk away. For all that they managed to form Voltron again, Pidge seemed sluggish and not as enthusiastic as the others. 

Once is happenstance, Gabriel quoted to himself. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. 

He’ll let it slide as exhaustion for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to explain more about Gabriel later, as per the habit I seem to be getting in. Check back in 24 hours.
> 
> EDIT: So, this little expositions is the big thing I've been hinting at since I started this. Gabriel's core.
> 
> Some facts about it:  
> -The core essentially is Gabriel. It exists on a different plane that only Gabriel can get to by meditating.  
> -It's pretty clear that the reason Gabriel remembers all of his lives is because of this core.  
> -There is no other core like it. But that doesn't mean the process of how he formed was unique. Something just went wrong.  
> -Gabriel is going to become VERY important to the war later. Though I won't touch on that until several more chapters in. like 10-15 chapters or so. Maybe even 25. 
> 
> I'm really trying not to give spoilers so these notes will only clarify some points in the story that I might not be getting across clearly. These notes will also become shorter as I go on.


End file.
